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Golden quarter at Daimler and SAP, golden future at Volkswagen and a new Lidl boss

2021-07-21T17:11:53.063Z


Every evening we summarize the most important economic news of the day. Today with a new Lidl boss, the spectacular end of the Hück affair and a golden future at Volkswagen.


The auto business is booming.

You could

almost hear it humming

at

Daimler

that Wednesday

.

The result of the second quarter was so good, especially at Mercedes, that CEO

Ola Källenius

was able to look forward to an operating return on sales of a full 12 percent for a short time.

In the auto business, such double-digit results are the absolute exception (the other Daimler forecasts are also cautious).

A few hundred kilometers further north, at

Volkswagen

in Wolfsburg, they naturally also look at the return on sales.

In the official planning for the coming years it is in the high single digits - but my colleague Michael Freitag reports on internal strategy papers.

Then CEO

Herbert Diess

reckons

with golden times.

The electric boom, the business with software, charging stations and other products that will be turned on for car buyers in the future, should ensure long-term double-digit returns from 2025, according to Diess' calculation.

The profit per car should double, at least.

It is basically the Tesla strategy that Volkswagen is using to achieve new dimensions of profit.

And since nothing buzzes anymore with electric cars, it has to be said: Business is buzzing and purring.

The economic news of the day:

  • It has only been a few weeks since the formerly most powerful Zampano in German retail was chased from the farm.

    Klaus Gehrig

    , head of the

    Schwarz Group

    , which is known to

    include

    the discount

    chains Lidl

    and

    Kaufland

    , had to leave.

    And the new strong man,

    Gerd Chrzanowski

    , does not hesitate to make important decisions.

    Now he has also solved the most important personnel issue that has recently been puzzled across the industry.

    Our two retail experts Margret Hucko and Martin Mehringer have found out: Irish

    Kenneth McGrath

    should be the new boss at Lidl

    become.

    He's an old friend in the company, he has already gone twice to come back for higher positions.

    The reorganization of the Lidl empire.

  • News also from someone who was once considered the most powerful Zampano in the German works council scene:

    Uwe Hück

    , fighter and labor fighter and works council chairman at

    Porsche for

    22 years

    .

    In 2019, he suddenly resigned, the public prosecutor's office was investigating irregularities and diverted funds.

    The proceedings have now been discontinued - but Hück has to pay a six-figure amount.

    And Porsche a whopping 40 million euros.

  • Similar to Daimler (see above),

    SAP can

    also look back

    on good months.

    Or in the words of CEO

    Christian Klein

    : "We had a fantastic quarter."

  • Things weren't quite as good on Netflix.

    One of the big winners of the pandemic, the streaming service has gained fewer new subscribers than ever before.

    CEO Reed Hastings felt compelled to say this: "The growth story remains intact."

    What else should he say?

    My colleague Jonas Rest had recently described in detail how much the company is under pressure: The series attack.

What could help you in your professional life:

  • You probably know you as well as I do.

    We have to make

    decisions

    every day

    - unfortunately they are often based on distorted perception.

    Experts speak of "bias".

    In private life this is annoying, in professional life it is also expensive.

    (There is the bon mot about a CEO whose supervisory board justifies his 10 million euros annual salary with the fact that he reliably makes at least six out of ten decisions correctly.) The two economists

    Maximilian Schmidt

    and

    Arnt Wöhrmann

    describe the simple methods that companies use to create the bias their managers can reduce: distrust their gut instincts.

My recommendation for the evening:

  • You will probably remember: The MDax Group

    Knorr-Bremse

    recently announced in

    an ad hoc announcement

    that it wanted to examine

    the acquisition of the automotive supplier

    Hella

    .

    It would have been a billion-

    dollar deal

    that

    the new CEO

    Jan Mrosik was

    aiming for.

    Alone: ​​The investors mutinied, the stock market value fell by a sixth - and Mrosik was forced to cancel the plan.

    My colleague Angela Maier and my colleague Michael Freitag researched what was behind the Hella disaster.

    Said Mrosik can well imagine expanding into the digital business.

    Knorr-Bremse - previously consisting of a train and a truck division - could even get a third business pillar.

    But read for yourself: The mistakes of the new boss.


Sincerely, your Lukas Heiny

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-07-21

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