Change

As you may have read from our press release or seen elsewhere, this is an important day for me. By mutual agreement, the Siemens supervisory board and I, have taken the decision that my contract as CHRO of Siemens will expire effective January 31, 2020.

It would be hard to overstate how fulfilling my years at Siemens have been for me. Serving the company all around the world has been a fantastic part of my professional experience to date. I am grateful for the opportunities that Siemens gave me and for the wonderful people at this company with whom I have had the great pleasure and honor to work.  

Looking back at my term as CHRO, I see so many things that we can be very proud of. We drove the development of an innovative and state-of-the art HR function that enabled us to accomplish a lot: we changed the way we define performance management and succession planning, we made sure that diversity became woven into the Siemens DNA, and we placed learning and the professional development of our employees at the very heart of the company´s growth story. We made it clear that even in difficult times of restructuring there are still ways in which we can invest in innovation and in the skills of our people. We demonstrated that it is possible to take necessary and tough business decisions while at the same time presenting the company as the attractive employer that it is. We showed that we can create a safe environment for our colleagues. And we proved, together with many others in the company, that, yes, culture change can be realized.

I have always been driven by change. I have always preached the importance of change. Change is what we are pursuing at Siemens. And change is what I am now looking to achieve in my own life.

To embrace change we need constantly to learn new things and to seek new inspiration, no matter what we already know. So, after I leave Siemens, I’ll be taking the time to learn from other organizations and from people with different experiences and backgrounds. I’m curious to understand how they are mastering their challenges and how they embrace new approaches.

I look forward to using what experience and expertise I have gained over the years to advise and support other corporations and organizations as they go about mastering their own transformation, rebuilding their own ecosystems, and solving their own structural issues.

Most of all though, I look forward to sharing with them what I know about empowering their people. Because, after all, it is all about people, and no amount of repeating this will ever make it less true. To me, inclusion and empowerment are the keys to tackling many of the problems that we encounter, whether these are business challenges at the level of companies and organizations or the major global challenges that we are facing at the level of society as a whole. To meet these challenges and shape a future worth living for us all, we need to overcome structural discrimination in our societies and to tap the skills, knowledge, and energy of everyone who wishes to contribute. This includes providing access to education for everyone, regardless of gender and social class. And now more than ever companies and societies need to invest in the (up- and re-) skilling of their people if they wish to master digitization and stay competitive. We need to aim for all of this to ensure functioning organizations, functioning economies, and even functioning democracies.

In my professional life people have always been at the forefront of my work: people I worked for, people I worked with, people who worked with me, people I met, people who inspired me. Your passion and your dedication is mind-blowing and is something that will stay forever in my thoughts and in my heart.

And to you, my immediate teams and my colleagues: Having the honor to serve as your leader is a great pleasure and delight. Your commitment to our transformation, your willingness always to go the extra mile even when things got stormy, your passion to drive change and innovation made us an excellent and award-winning team and will forever remain a source of incredible pride for me. We discussed, we argued, we had passionate debates, but we always knew that we could rely on one another to fashion something bigger, something better, something that would be worth it. You are awesome! You simply rock! Thank you so very, very much!

This is not a final good-bye, as I will devote all my energy and my full commitment for our company until the end of January 2020. And I know I can count on the people at Siemens to do their part to ensure that we successfully meet the challenges of the future.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to share my thoughts with you.

Link to press release: https://press.siemens.com/global/en/pressrelease/supervisory-board-extends-contract-managing-board-member-cedrik-neike