Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

It's the same case with big German companies (Siemens, Bosch, BMW, Porsche, etc.). Senior management positions are only awarded to ethnic Germans so it's quite ironic to hear them complain when they get the same treatment at foreign companies.

This mentality is somewhat changing, but very slowly and white westerns are still prioritized. You won't see any Indians run German auto companies any time soon like you see them running major US tech companies.




I can pick four DAX companies with non-German CEOs

Daimler... Ola is Swedish Adidas... Kasper is Danish Beiersdorf... Stefan is Belgian Linde... Aldo is Italian

I think you're drawing conclusions where there are none to be drawn


> This mentality is somewhat changing, but very slowly and white westerns are still prioritized.


True, I used to work in Germany and all my managers/bosses were white german males.

Two exception 1 from USA and another from balkans.


To lead in Germany you have to know German - the people who don't will have problems (Cryan did at DB, as did Jennifer Morgan at SAP). And there are few foreign managers in these companies willing to learn German to a good enough standard - unlike in English or American companies.


> Siemens, Bosch, BMW, Porsche

Let's see.

Siemens USA: CEO Barbara Humpton, not German.

Bosch USA: Mike Mansuetti, not German.

BMW USA: President Bernhard Kuhnt (sounds German), but top leadership team includes lots of Non-Germans: Shaun Bugbee, Lisa Errion Saums, Adam Sykes, Howard S. Harris, Adam McNeill, Michael Peyton, Trudy Hardy

Porsche USA: CEO Kjell Gruner (German), but top leadership includes mostly names that are not German: Joe Lawrence, Thierry Kartochian, George Feygin, Angus Fitton, Glenn Garde, Pedro Mota, Scott Codute, Trevor Arthur, John Cappella.

I guess you either don't know or you do know but spread misinformation on purpose.


Siemens CEO: Joe Kaeser

Bosch CEO: Volkmar Denner

BMW CEO: Harald Krueger

Porsche CEO: Oliver Blume

All German. I always thought of the CEOs of foreign branches were usually more "marketing" CEOs than actual run the core business CEOs. They are the face for the regional dealers and suppliers to meet in the respective regions.


Right, but that's not the point of either the article nor the comment that ChuckNorris89 replied to, the article is about a Chinese company in Europe/Germany, and the comment was about US companies in Europe. The only equivalent then is German companies in the US.

It's expected to have leadership in the domestic branch of any large corporation to be mostly from that country: few Americans emigrate to Germany for work, expecting the ~100k US-citizens in Germany to contain the CEOs of major companies among ~80m people (mostly German) seems ridiculous just looking at statistics.


He was talking about places in Germany.


Yeah all white. No Asians.


The easiest way to harvest downvotes: expose a comforting lie people want to believe. God, HN really has become reddit.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2025 batch! Applications are open till May 13

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: