Business insights. Баутина И.В - 14 стр.

    If Germans associate one company with the state of Baden-Wurttemberg it is the
automotive group DaimlerChrysler. The group was formed in 1998 through the
merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler of the US. But the local association dates
back to the late 1890s, when Daimler and Benz began the automotive age by
producing the world’s first motor cars. DaimlerChrysler is one of the mainstays of
the Baden-Wurttemberg economy sustaining 242,000 people in employment across
Germany – the bulk of them in the state.
    To extend its global reach, the company has ambitious plans to grow in the
automotive business, and will invest €46bn developing sixty-four new cars and truck
models in the next few years. Research and development spending is set to soar to
what a spokesman says is ‘a market leading position’. This year the company aims
for sales of €146bn, compared with previous forecasts of €139.9bn.
    One of the most critical issues facing the group as it attempts to achieve those
targets is where it will find, in sufficient numbers, people with the right
qualifications to make it all happen. Baden-Wurttemberg and Germany alone will
not be able to provide enough recruits. ‘DaimlerChrysler needs to hire 4,500
engineers and IT people in the next three years’, says Marc Binder of Human
Resources. ‘That’s a big number and it will be impossible to find enough of them in
Germany, let alone in one region. You have to hire them from the top schools in the
world’.
    Traditionally, Daimler-Benz always recruited engineers within Germany. In
1999, however, its recruitment campaign went global. Part of the impetus was that
the transatlantic merger had broadened the spectrum of job opportunities. Using the
Internet, DaimlerChrysler issued a blanket invitation to college graduates around the
world – with emphasis on mechanical engineering, process technology and
aerospace engineering – to attend an open day at eleven DaimlerChrysler locations
around the world. Of the 800 who attended, about 55 per cent were invited for
interview – a far higher proportion than in previous recruitment drives.
    A few months later, the group launched a novel campaign to attract recruits for
its International Management Associate Program. It advertised in the international
press, inviting would-be trainees to call a company hotline during a four-hour period
over two days. Some 200 applicants were interviewed.
     Competition for talent from other large industrial groups is bound to increase.
Rivals such as BMW, in neighbouring Bavaria, have similar needs. But Mr Binder
says: ‘We try to convince would-be recruits that we’re the most global company and
it’s more interesting to work at DaimlerChrysler in this exciting period after the
merger.’ Recruits are also offered opportunities to work in different units of the
group.
     The recruitment problem has been made worse by a steady decline in the number
of students electing to study engineering since the early 1990s – when there were too

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