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Foreigner quota to fix 'too German' Daimler

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Foreigner quota to fix 'too German' Daimler
Photo: DPA

Daimler, the German auto-giant behind luxury car brand Mercedes, has decided that its management personnel is just too German. The firm has vowed to fill half of its top jobs with international applicants.

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"Up until now, the company is still very German at the management level," Daimler's personnel manager Wilfried Porth told Die Welt newspaper on Monday.

The carmaker currently employs around 270,000 people in more than 50 factories across four continents. Around 100,000 of its workers are based outside Germany.

"Daimler is a global company, and the big growth is currently happening in the USA, China, or other countries in East Asia," said Porth. "We need more leaders from those regions."

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To meet that goal, the company is effectively bringing in a "foreigner quota" for all future appointments. "We have re-assessed our recruitment programme CAReer, and within its framework we will prepare between 300 and 500 young newcomers for managerial functions per year."

The goal is for 35 percent of these new recruits to be women, and for 50 percent to be non-German. "The company is to become more international in management," said Porth. "In the past, we have not always been optimal in that department."

Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche has said he wants Mercedes to overtake BMW and Audi as the world's leading luxury carmaker by 2020.

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