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Former CEO Dieter Zetsche will not return as scheduled as head of the supervisory board at automaker Daimler next year. In view of the shared responsibility for the group’s problems that critics give to the longtime senior manager, the latter now rejects the mandate. “In the final analysis I decided that I don’t want that, that I can manage without him,” said the 67-year-old from the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. That he now, after 40 years of professional life, “is not seen by some as a bearer of hope, but as a burden, no, I don’t need that,” he added.
Zetsche was CEO of the Stuttgart-based automaker from January 2006 to May 2019 before handing over his role to Ola Källenius. However, it was agreed in the governing bodies that Zetsche would assume the chairmanship of the supervisory board from Manfred Bischoff in 2021.
Accusation of wrong strategic decisions
However, these plans have recently faced mounting criticism from many Daimler shareholders. Among other things, Zetsche is accused of having relied on the records of the last few years at the end of his time as CEO and of having missed important decisions, especially to switch to electromobility. The current crisis is, in addition to the immediate consequences of the corona pandemic, homemade, they say. In the second quarter, the group posted losses of around two billion euros. An austerity program was launched.
The consequences of negligence and incorrect strategic decisions were already made clear in 2019. The car company had alarmed investors three times with a profit warning, and some expensive car developments turned out to be failures. Orderly recalls of some diesel models due to manipulated exhaust gas values scratched the picture, as did investigations into cartel involvement in the trucking business. And when it comes to the environmental compatibility of cars, much remains to be done.
Zetsche now said that he had long thought over the summer whether his original decision to return to Daimler’s Supervisory Board next year was still valid. “Of course I would have liked to do this job. I also think I would have done it well,” he said, but confessed, “I was wondering if I was really doing the company a service. And if I was doing myself a favor, if I take on this task now. ” Zetsche did not comment on the question of who could become the new chairman of the supervisory board. “I’m out of it, I don’t have any decisions to make about it.”
