In the ARD documentary: Eon's boss about everyday life as a business boss: “70-hour week, but a lot of fun”
In the ARD documentary about German business bosses, the managers talk about it. The film shows how challenges from all parties can lead to pressure to succeed.
They say, “Work is my hobby” or “I never did things because I thought I had to do them to have a career.” CEOs of major German corporations, including multiple ARD Civis award winner Nicole Graef, interviewed for her 90-minute documentary “Lonely Top – CEOs” are all convinced that they will change their companies and thus the world for the better in the near future. The current crisis – too few skilled workers, expensive energy, too much red tape and inflation – spurs them on. They want to convey their motivation to their tens of thousands of employees.
BASF boss: the crisis mixture “gets under the skin”
Personal well-being (salary is not mentioned) and coping strategies merge seamlessly from the start, and you feel the burden of responsibility quite elegantly. However, Martin Brudermüller from BASF (sales 2022: 87.3 billion) admits: the current crisis is significantly different from others. The weakness of global demand, the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis formed a very special mixture that began to “get under the skin”.
Eon boss: “70 hours a week but a lot of fun”
Sigrid Evelyn Nikutta, head of the transport company Deutsche Bahn Cargo (turnover 3.4 billion), has completely different concerns. For decades, rail freight had been in “severe deficits” and infrastructure had been neglected. It needs 45 billion over the next few years to make up for the structural changes left behind.
It's good if you can sit behind the wheel of a self-driving truck on the test site (or at least next to it). Transport combined with autonomous vehicles should ensure growth. PR bluff or already working program? That's the question.
Leonhard Birnbaum (E.ON, 115.7 billion 2022, 74,000 employees) gives a small lesson to board candidates: “Discipline” is one of the prerequisites for a career. “70 hours a week, but a lot of fun.” However, the current situation makes him nervous and he is tense. “But fear doesn't help.” He relies on “demand evolution”. You have to “find capital that makes a profit” and that's how things will continue in the future.
Time to roll up your sleeves in Germany
WDR's documentary, well worth watching, swings very effortlessly back and forth between a frightening description of the present and a brisk optimism for the future. In the meantime, there is a photo opportunity, sometimes with the chancellor – too much depth is not allowed.
To say that politics and business meet here would be saying too much. But it is zero hour in the room, secret fears are beginning to be revealed – and it is high time for Germany to roll up its sleeves again. It is feared that the Europeans will be left behind. Elsewhere, you can buy a kilowatt-hour for three cents, and labor is cheaper and taxes are lower there.
“Especially now!” says Daniel Grieder, boss of Hugo Boss Switzerland in Metzingen / Swabia. Once a year, she hosts an “out of the box” party with staff, models and influencers. The performance operates under the campaign name “Holy Shit”. We can only hope that the old Latin substitution “nomen est omen” does not apply. That would be a shame for the jobs of all troubled CEOs.
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This article “Eon boss on daily life as a business boss: “70-hour week, but lots of fun”” is originally from Teleschau.
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