Similar to Siemens’ Peter Loescher making his departure after a less-than successful attempt at solar energy, fellow German company Bilfinger’s energy investments – particularly in South Africa – have caused its CEO to leave. CEO Roland Koch will step down from his position at the company effective on August 8 after the company cut its 2014 earnings guidance for the second time this year. Supervisory board member Herbert Bodner will become the interim CEO until a replacement is made.
Bilfinger said that its lower-than-expected guidance is mostly based on unrealistic targets in the power generation sector as a result of a project loss in South Africa. The company expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, and amortization to decrease €40 million by €40 million from previous forecasts pushing it between €340 million to €360 million.
Bilfinger follows after Siemens in more than just one way. A month after Siemens pulled out of the Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII), Bilfinger followed suit. Siemens’ former CEO Loescher was passionate about the solar industry, but his passion didn’t reap rewards for the energy giant. It appears as though Koch was the same.
The main problem seems to be that large companies that are very successful in other areas forget that it isn’t realistic to create a new division with the same targets as its other established departments. And just because you are successful in oil and gas, wind energy, or *insert specialty here* does not mean that you can go full throttle into a new sector and expect to immediately be on top. Everyone needs to crawl before they walk and sometimes even after you walk, you have to go back to crawling.
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