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The Last Word: Klaus Kleinfeld; 'We've Got Tail Wind'.
Byline: Emily Flynn Vencat
If Siemens's 48-year-old ceo, klaus kleinfeld, has a motto, it must be: "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." After realizing that Siemens couldn't compete with Nokia's cell-phone technology last year, Kleinfeld sold the company's handset division, and then, this summer, merged his telecom-equipment business with Nokia's. Since taking over at the beginning of last year, he's also cut Siemens's head count and put pressure on German unions to loosen labor rules. It seems to be paying off: the 160-year-old company--Germany's largest by market capitalization--boasted third-quarter net profits this year of almost $1 billion, double those of the same period last year, with revenues reaching $27 billion. He spoke with NEWSWEEK's Emily Flynn Vencat. Excerpts:
Flynn Vencat: Siemens has led the way on corporate reform, making painful changes like restructuring and layoffs. What's next?
Kleinfeld: Change doesn't have a value by itself. So I look at what's happening around the globe. What I see are three things: population growth, aging societies and the fact that more and more of the economic power is concentrated in megacities with more than 10 million inhabitants. The one fundamental thing you need in growing economies is energy. In an aging society, you need affordable health care. In big cities, you need strong infrastructure--like good mass-transportation systems. We are in all those fields--in energy production, health care and public and private infrastructures like mass transportation and industrial automation. We've got big-time tail wind.
The World Cup really buoyed the German economy--is the growth going to last?
Germany is the third largest economy in the world. What has happened and what needs to continue to happen is the flexibilization of the labor market. In most large businesses, for example, there will be a fluctuating volume of work that needs to be done. The labor force needs to be flexible so that it can grow and shrink with those cycles, and you don't have to hire and fire people.
Is the German government beginning to play its part in restructuring the economy?
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Source: HighBeam Research, The Last Word: Klaus Kleinfeld; 'We've Got Tail Wind'.