DE&I is essential to our identity and culture. We actively encourage different perspectives, put together diverse teams, provide equal opportunity, and insist on real cultural change toward a truly inclusive work environment. We believe that diversity makes us better—better at understanding our markets and customers, at generating business opportunities, and at being innovative. Consequently, we have made DE&I a top strategic issue.

All dimensions of Diversity are important to us. But we are focusing in particular on promoting gender and international balance. Therefore, we have set ourselves ambitious targets: By year-end 2025, we aim for our Global Management Team to consist of at least 40% women and at least 50% non-Germans.

At year-end 2023, women accounted for 39% and non-Germans for 44% of our Global Management Team. Our company’s age structure, including for executives and managers, is well balanced across all age groups. At year-end 2023, our average employee was 42 years old.

While making progress toward quantifiable targets is important, diversity also has a qualitative aspect that cannot be measured by KPIs—atmosphere and culture. We therefore address the topic from different angles.