Glöckner: Please describe MAHLE’s operations in Slovenia.
MAHLE: Slovenia and its five sites have been an important focal point of MAHLE’s Electronics and Mechatronics activities since 2014, when we acquired the Letrika Group, a company based in Slovenia. The site in Sempeter is the European hub for the Mechatronics business segment for both production as well as research and development. In addition, there are currently further production plants in Bovec and Komen, as well as development facilities in Ljubljana and Maribor.
Additional products have been industrialised organically since the acquisition. That means this highly enhanced business is now an essential element of our dual strategy, according to which we focus on both further optimising our business with combustion engines and on opening up new business areas in the field of alternative drivetrains. Our current planning anticipates the group’s Slovenian operations will generate revenue in the mid triple-digit million euros in the future.

Glöckner: Last year MAHLE celebrated its 100th anniversary. The group is a global corporation and one of the 20 largest automotive suppliers worldwide with more than 72,000 employees. Today the global automotive industry is undergoing a major transformation process towards alternative powertrain solutions. As a country with a strong automotive sector, Slovenia is just as challenged to face this transformation process. What is MAHLE’s dual corporate strategy? Please describe this transformation process towards alternative powertrain systems and explain how the Slovenian subsidiaries are involved.
Jan-Frederek Thiele: One goal of our corporate strategy is to strengthen our traditional product areas in order to accelerate even further MAHLE’s switch to technologies beyond the internal combustion engine. We aim to remain strong in the business with internal combustion engines as long as they are needed in the international markets and demanded by our customers. After all, the problem is not the internal combustion engine itself, rather it is the fossil fuels that power them. The internal combustion engine combined with hydrogen and synthetic fuels actually offers great potential for saving carbon emissions. This established portion of the group strategy plays a very important role, in part because we use it to generate the financial means to enhance our portfolio with the same high level of intensity in the direction of e-mobility, fuel cells, hydrogen and e-fuels. We already generate around 60 per cent of our revenue independently of the internal combustion engine – and the trend is rising. By 2030 it should be more than three quarters. That means we are fully on track with the transformation.
Slovenia’s focus on Electronics and Mechatronics activities enables it to play an important role, especially in e-mobility. By the way, we are meanwhile one of the largest employers in Slovenia and are also heavily involved in Slovenia’s social, cultural and university life. The group has a partnership with the Felu University in Ljubljana, for example. In addition, MAHLE sponsors the country’s e-mobility rally. 

Glöckner: You are Vice President Corporate Controlling. What topics are you currently working on?
Jan-Frederek Thiele: I believe Controlling must concentrate on two areas. First, it must focus heavily on the growing challenge of always providing a reliable information basis for management to make the right decisions, i.e. by enabling the immediate integration of figures and information into the decision-making process. And second, Controlling should aim to increase cost efficiency continuously.
Our Controlling activities are also currently undergoing a transformation. At the moment we are fundamentally reorganising the function in order to focus on the fields of governance, data production and business partnering. Strong governance is important, especially in a group like MAHLE that operates worldwide. It enables global comparability by establishing binding rules for controlling and internal accounting.

Glöckner: Would you like to say something about the status of digitisation at MAHLE?
MAHLE: Digitisation naturally plays a very crucial role at MAHLE. It goes without saying that the year 2020 gave MAHLE’s digitisation strategy a further boost. Our initiatives in this regard now extend beyond topics such as Industry 4.0. We are working on this important topic in every aspect of the group and are establishing digital and modular processes.

Glöckner: Please describe how the Business Unit Controlling function is organised. How many people are employed here and how many of them are in Slovenia?
Benjamin Hödl: Our business unit is divided into four global segments. In turn, production plants and tech centers are organised in these segments. Corresponding Controlling functions are active at every level. In Slovenia we have a strong team that is also active across locations and countries, for example when preparing quotation calculations.

Glöckner: Please describe this cross-border cooperation using budget planning (or monthly reporting) as an example. What has it been like to work with your Slovenian colleagues?
MAHLE: A classic example is the walkthrough of the monthly reporting. We collaborate very closely with our Slovenian counterparts and are in close contact with each other. Both sides have highly qualified colleagues with a common understanding of our goals and tasks. Communication is therefore not a problem.

Glöckner: Does MAHLE have any experience with secondments of Finance/Controlling employees abroad, maybe even from/to Slovenia? What are the opportunities and challenges of such a secondment?
MAHLE: Secondments fundamentally play a very important role at MAHLE, and they are also consciously promoted, especially in the Finance and Controlling functions.
Foreign secondments aim to promote the entrepreneurial, creative and independent qualities of the employee. Intercultural training helps in this regard. These assignments focus not only on performing important tasks, but also on fostering the professional development, expertise and personal training of identified high-potential employees.
Slovenia is an attractive location due to its importance in the group and its central location in Europe. It is therefore not surprising that the exchange of employees in Controlling via secondments between Slovenia and the company headquarters in Germany functions very well in both directions.

Glöckner: Finally, how would you complete the following sentence: Slovenia is for MAHLE ... 
Jan-Frederek Thiele: ... an important and promising location on the MAHLE map under our dual corporate strategy.
Benjamin Hödl: ... an important building block for the growth strategy of the Mechatronics and Electronics Business Unit thanks to its well-trained staff.