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Daimler's executive shift

March 4, 2013

The German automaker Daimler has announced an initiative to lure more executives from abroad for its international operations. It said its global business activities required much more foreign management-level staff.

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The giant logo of German vehicle maker Daimler's Mercedes-Benz sits on the top of its head office building in Beijing GOU YIGE/AFP/Getty Images)
Image: AFP/Getty Images

The German carmaker Daimler announced on Monday that it wanted to attract more foreign executives for its worldwide operations.

Human resources chief Wilfried Porth told the newspaper Die Welt that many more management-level staff from abroad were required to make international business operations more successful.

"So far, the company's management has been rather German-oriented," Porth told the daily.

He added that that was not really in line with where the company was currently logging its biggest growth rates, notably in the US and China and other Asian countries.

Foreign expertise wanted

The move could help the Stuttgart-based carmaker catch up with its domestic rivals BMW and Audi. Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said the firm hoped to double its sales by 2020 in a bid to once again become the largest producer of luxury vehicles.

The company announced that it would introduce a recruitment quota for new executives, with every second new manager to come from abroad. "It's our aim to get more executives from the US, China, India and other regions," Porth said.

Daimler: vorsichtiger Ausblick trotz Absatzrekord

He argued that that would eventually put Daimler in a position to gain more customer satisfaction abroad and help launch more cross-border cooperation schemes.

hg/mkg (dpa, AFP)