Siemans and Kleinfeld

American oil baron H.L. Hunt once described his management theory as being “Decide what you want…Establish your priorities and go to work.” That seems to be the dictum followed by Siemens’ Klaus Kleinfeld. When the long time employee ascended to the CEO position, Kleinfeld had decided what he wanted the company to be. He then took the initiative, established his priorities and got down to the work of remaking the 158 year old company.

Vision and Goals

Kleinfeld’s overall goal was to greatly increase Siemens’ profits in all of the company’s strategic business units. His vision was to turn what had been called a cumbersome giant into a slimmer, more efficient, and more effective organization (Hammerschmidt, 2007). When Kleinfeld began his term as CEO, Siemens had branches in 190 countries and sales of $114 billion. However, it also had a reputation for being slow to respond to new trends and changing market forces (Ewing, 2007).

In order to meet his goal of having all business units operating profitably by 2007, within months of taking over, Kleinfeld initiated a flurry of changes. In June of 2005, Kleinfeld passed the loss generating cellular handset division of Siemens to the Taiwan company BenQ at a cost of $1.6 billion. Kleinfeld also dissolved the under-performing Logistics and Assembly division, spreading its areas of responsibility to other business units (Wassener, 2005). Kleinfeld also oversaw a joint venture with cell phone giant Nokia and billions in acquisitions. During his two-year tenure at Siemens stock price rose 26% (ICMR, ND).

Leadership Style

Leadership tends to be demonstrated in three styles. These styles are: autocratic; democratic; and delegative. The autocratic leader tells others what they want done and how it is to be done without consulting others. The democratic leader included others in the decision-making process while maintaining ultimate authority. The delegative leader cedes the authority to make decisions...