siemens the quest for a turnaround

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Unethic al C ompany V/S Ethical Lead e r (The qu e st f or a turnaroun d) a v e n g e r s

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Siemens Controveries Unethical Company VS Ethical Leader Rebiudling

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Page 1: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Uneth

ical

Com

pany

V/S

Ethi

cal L

eade

r

(The

que

st fo

r a tu

rnar

ound

)

avengers

Page 2: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Company Information Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in

Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical

engineering company.

Founders: Werner von Siemens & Johann George Halske (1847)

Organized into 19 Divisions & five main Sectors:

Industry, Energy, Healthcare, Infrastructure & Cities, & Siemens Financial Services.

Siemens and its subsidiaries employee approximately 4,00,000 people across

nearly 190 countries and reported global revenue of approx € 73.5 billion for the

year of 2011 of which more than half were found corrupt.

Listing: Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Primary)

New York stock Exchange (Secondary)

Page 3: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Klaus Kleinfeld Alcoa Inc & Citi Inc

Restructuring and Modernization.

Kleinfeld, along with other former Siemens executives and

board members, were accused of failing to prevent

corruption.

In September 2009, Siemens extended an offer to Keinfeld and other former

members of "its Managing Board against whom damages are being claimed to declare

their willingness to reach a settlement.”

He agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to settle the matter.

Failure of Management Culture - Managers broke the law. Siemens always had a set

of rules that were being violated. The management culture was simply not practiced

consistently and uniformly.

Page 4: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Controversies

X 2007 Price Fixing Fine: In January 2007 Siemens was fined €396 million by the European Commission for

price fixing in EU electricity markets through a cartel involving 11 companies,

among which Fuji, Hitachi Japan etc. were included.

According to the Commission, "between 1988 and 2004, the companies rigged

bids for procurement contracts, fixed prices, allocated projects to each other,

shared markets and exchanged commercially important and confidential

information.“

Siemens was given the highest fine of €396 million, more than half of the total, for

its alleged leadership role in the incident.

Page 5: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

X Bribery Case: Siemens agreed to pay a record $1.34 billion in fines in December 2008 after being

investigated for serious bribery.

The investigation found questionable payments of roughly €1.3 billion, from 2002

to 2006 that triggered a broad range of inquiries in Germany, the United States and

many other countries.

In May 2007 a German court convicted two former executives of paying about €6

million in bribes from 1999 to 2002 to help Siemens win natural gas, turbine supply

contracts with Enel, an Italian energy company.

The contracts were valued at about €450 million.

Siemens was fined €38 million.

Page 6: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

X Iran Telecoms Controversy Nokia Siemens supplied telecommunications equipment to the Iranian telecom

company that included the ability to intercept and monitor telecommunications,

a facility known as "lawful intercept".

The equipment was believed to have been used in the suppression of the 2009–

2010 Iranian election protests, leading to criticism of the company, including by

the European Parliament.

Nokia-Siemens later divested its call monitoring business, and reduced its

activities in Iran.

Page 7: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

X Greek Bribes, Greek Metro & Traffic Lights:

In 2008, it was revealed that Siemens had bribed the two main political parties of

Greece for approximately 10 years to be the sole provider of mechanical and

electrical equipment of the Greek state.

After the exposure the German authorities moved to arrest the representatives of

Siemens in Greece, who had managed to escape from the Greek authorities

The German judicial system didn't allow the Greek authorities to cross-question the

representatives. As a result, there wasn't any solid evidence against the corrupt

politicians, who weren't arrested and continue to be active in the Greek political

system.

Meanwhile, the Greek state cancelled the planned business deals since all spares

were provided by Siemens, the equipment, like traffic lights eventually broke down,

and projects like the metro expansion were abandoned.

Page 8: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Diagnosis Internal inquiry by New York law firm Debevoise & Plimpton.

Around 40 whistleblowers gave incriminating evidence, which extended the

scandal's reach into the previous board.

Several systemic elements have been cited as contributing to the scandal,

including: an aggressive growth strategy that, arguably, compelled managers to see

bribes as a tempting short-cut to hitting tough performance targets; a complex,

matrix-like structure that allowed divisions to effectively run themselves, and poor

accounting processes.

Perhaps above all, Siemens' then-corporate culture seemed openly tolerant of

bribes, helping staff to feel they were "not only acceptable but implicitly

encouraged".

Page 9: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Important Statements

Based on our investigation so far, we have reason to suspect that Siemens ran 'black

accounts ... that allowed it to open new markets through secret payments to potential and

existing business partners.“ - Jeanette Balmer, a spokeswoman for the office of the Swiss

federal prosecutor, in 2006.

"Many people within Siemens knew about the method of payment. Getting a contract

isn't easy.“ - Horst Vigener, former Siemens employee convicted in a bribery case, in

2007.

"What hopefully will come out of the Siemens affair is that senior business leaders, when

they see what happens to Siemens in terms of fines and the lost reputation of individuals

like von Pierer or Kleinfeld, is that they will say 'OK, we need to start taking this seriously'.“

- Jermyn Brooks, director of private sector programs at Transparency International, in

2007.

Page 10: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Stake Holders

Employees

Society/Public at

large

SuppliersCustomers

Board of Directors

Page 11: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

“An Ethical behaviour is

characterized by honesty,

fairness and equity in

interpersonal, professional

and academic relationships

and in research and

scholarly activities. Ethical

behaviour respects the

dignity, diversity and rights

of individuals and groups of

people.”

Page 12: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Siemens first step towards Ethical path

All of the group’s executives at the

time of scandal tainted .

Board was forced to look for an

outsider to head the company

First time in its 160 year history

Mr Peter Loscher

Page 13: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Mr. Peter Löscher's Background

Native of Austria.

Studied Economics and obtained MBA from Vienna University.

Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

President of Global human health at Merck & Co.

President and CEO of General Electric HealthCare Bio sciences

Many think that Löscher's international resume and personal history suggest that

he is the right person to serve as a worldwide ethics ambassador for Siemens,

which currently does business in 190 different countries.

Page 14: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Rebuilding trust: How Siemens atoned for its sins

German engineering giant ‘Siemens’

suffered a huge loss of trust following a

bribery scandal, but a determination to

face the truth led by Peter Loscher put

the firm on the path to recovery.

Siemens' full response to the scandal has

been widely praised by many independent

anti-corruption and ethics experts, including

the Organisation for Economic Co-operation

and Development, and US Federal

authorities.

Page 15: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Steps Taken

Löscher went about clearing out more than half of the firms’ senior management

team.

Siemens didn't need revolution but rather evolution, and it needed to be done

with speed.

Löscher applied his own principles to clean up Siemens: Determination, passion,

execution, and ‘True North’

"Make sure the company values are actually lived.”

Corrupt Siemens executives had testified that they took bribes "for the benefit of

the company."

Page 16: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

"The most dangerous thing you can do is do it because everyone does. It's up to

you to say no."

He hired over 500 full-time compliance officers (up from just 86 in 2006), and a

former Interpol official to head its new investigation unit.

Created a leadership team of trusted executives.

Launched a 100 day tour – make himself and his values visible.

Implemented an internal amnesty.

Siemens launched a comprehensive training and education programme on anti-

corruption practises for its employees.

By 2008, Siemens had trained more than half its 400,000-strong global

workforce on anti-corruption issues.

Lastly as a simple gesture Siemens announced it would avoid competing in

certain known hotspots for corruption or unethical practice, such as Sudan.

Page 17: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Ethics over Profits

“Siemens endorses clean business. I am not interested in deals that can only be

had through corruption. This doesn't necessarily mean that we have to stop

doing business in an entire country, but perhaps it does mean turning down

specific projects or customers.”

Löscher – still Siemens' CEO – has been commended for his approach to ending

corruption, but he has argued that changing the corporate culture to one

driven by ethical standards "is a marathon for us, not a sprint". By June 2008,

however, some executives were sufficiently confident to declare Siemens "the

most squeaky clean company".

Page 18: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Unethical behaviour can be very costly.

Premature dismissals of developing scandals can appear self-serving and

incompetent, and compound the original problem. The trustworthy course of

action is to acknowledge the accusations and to share any known facts, and to

initiate a full, urgent and independent enquiry.

Independent, ideally external, investigations are the most credible indicator of

trustworthiness. The painful rigor of such an investigation can be resented, but it

must be endured, until the full extent of the failure is laid bare.

Page 19: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Discovering the true scale and depth of a trust failure may only be possible when

senior leaders leave, and an amnesty is offered to staff to encourage them to come

forward.

The timescale for a major ethics overhaul is long - measured in years, not months -

as it invariably involves cultural change. Has Siemens declared victory prematurely?

Structural, procedural and cultural interventions should be adopted concurrently.

For example, strengthening compliance monitoring and codes of conduct must be

backed up with senior leaders' exhortations and training investment.

Voluntary penance is often necessary for effectively restoring trust. It helps to

demonstrate that the organisation has learned from the experience, and the willing

submission to punishment implies remorse and concern for damaged relationships.

Page 20: Siemens  the quest for a turnaround

Thank you