The head of German industrial group Siemens, Peter Loescher, feels his company's managers are too German, white and male. In an June 25 interview with the Financial Times and Financial Times Deutschland he said, "The managment board are all white males."
Loescher said his priority this year would be to improve the group's "cultural diversity," after spending his first year trying to help it recover from a scandal sparked by widespread corruption.
Failing to bring onboard top directors from countries like China and India would make Siemens less competitive, he added, noting: "Our top 600 managers are predominantly white German males. We are too one-dimensional."
Loescher stressed that "it is not a question of quotas. But I would like to see a big Chinese running China and a big Indian running India."
Siemens, which manufactures products from light bulbs to power stations and trains, employs around 413,000 people and is present in some 190 countries. "If you are not representing your global customer base then you won't tap your full potential," Loescher said.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2008
