Setting Sail –  Opportunity in Course Changes

Imagine that you are intending to sail to a port you’ve  
never visited before. What would you do? Plan the trip 
before you leave, measure the wind speed and direction,  
plot your course, lash the tiller, then do nothing further, and 
after the time needed for the trip had passed check whether 
you had reached your destination? Probably not. You would 
be more likely to make some general calculations and adjust 
your course from time to time.

It is precisely this ability to respond quickly and indepen-
dently to changing conditions that is known in a business 
context as agility. I believe it has made a major contribution 
to Daimler’s success. Agile working speeds up the pace of 
innovation and increases competitiveness in a complex,  
volatile environment.

My point is that Daimler has around 290,000 employees from 
more than 160 nationalities and the entire automotive industry 
is undergoing a period of upheaval. Digitization, connectivity, 
electrification, autonomous driving, the shared economy, and 
mobility apps such as car2go and moovel are all transforming 
the industry in previously unimagined ways. Our aim is to play 
an active role in shaping these changes. With our corporate 
strategy, which has the four key themes of “Connected, Auto-
nomous, Shared & Service, and Electric Drive” (Case), we are 
on the right track and are focusing increasingly on new ways of 
working together.

The characteristic features of agile working include signi-
ficant freedom to design your own work and considerable 
responsibility. This type of cooperation requires a new form  
of management. In contrast to more authoritarian approaches, 
managers in agile teams are increasingly taking on the role of 
coaches who support their team, help it to develop, and create  
a framework for independent action.

For example, in the field of development this means drawing 
up a clear description of specific product characteristics, func-
tionality, and customer experiences without knowing what the 
finished product is. In this type of environment, employees 
need effective guidance that allows them plenty of freedom to 
act, make use of their own resources, and take the necessary 
decisions so that they can achieve the next goal independently. 
This involves a combination of autonomy and coordination 
with the relevant stakeholders.

Managers at Daimler are learning to hand over control and 
transfer more responsibility for decision-making to the mem-
bers of their teams. This requires a great deal of trust on both 
sides. Sailors know that it makes no sense to sail directly 
toward their destination. Sailing is the art of keeping your eye 
on your objective and using the wind to get there, even if it is 
blowing from the side or changing direction.

(published in “Digital Human” by Kai Anderson and Bettina Volkens, Campus Verlag)

Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Porth
Member of the Board of 
 Management of Daimler AG, 
Human Resources and  
Director of Labor Relations, 
 Mercedes-Benz Vans

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