What you need for success. . . .

By Gary S. Vasilash

Oliver Zipse, chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, spoke to the company’s investors earlier this week and opened with a topic that is absolutely important to any company—in automotive and everywhere else—but tends not to get the attention it deserves: the employees.

Zipse noted that the company has more than 150,000 employees in locations across the world (fun fact: BMW’s largest plant is located. . .in Spartanburg, South Carolina; Zipse said that at BMW the U.S. is referred to as the company’s “second home”).

Zipse:

“In autumn of last year, we surveyed all our associates around the world: 85 percent said they fully support the company’s goals and strategy. And even 93 percent are proud to work for the BMW Group.”

Without having supportive people, people who are proud of where they work and undoubtedly proud of what they produce, then no company can consistently produce products that people are proud to own.

And regardless of whether it is electric or ICE, autonomous or manual, it all comes down to the women and men who work on building the vehicles.

Credit to Zipse and his colleagues for recognizing that and putting it at the top of his speech, where it belongs.