Siemens is fully committed to maintaining its Irish presence in coming years, despite the uncertainty that continues to rock the German and international business environment, the firm's president and chief executive, Dr Heinrich von Pierer, said at the weekend, writes Una McCaffrey in Killarney.
Dr von Pierer said the German electronics giant had a long-term commitment to a Siemens presence in Ireland and described his decision to speak at the 2003 IMI Management Conference in Killarney event as "a signal" to that effect.
Siemens employs about 800 people across operations in Dublin, Cork and Belfast.
The businesses, which together generate about €250 million in annual sales for the parent, largely escaped a round of redundancies and disposals that saw Siemens' global workforce decline by almost 60,000 last year.
"I didn't come only for fun to Ireland," Dr von Pierer told reporters after addressing the conference. "It's a demonstration that we take it seriously."
He went on to recognise the achievement of the Government in creating "an opportune business environment" in the Republic, welcoming recent moves by German chancellor, Dr Gerhard Schröder to shake up the often outdated regulatory structures within which many German businesses have struggled to survive.
"We could learn something from Ireland," Dr von Pierer said, expressing particular "respect" for the Irish educational system.
He also said he had perceived "a guarded optimism" among the delegates attending the Killarney conference, highlighting a confident presentation by CRH chief executive, Mr Liam O'Mahony, as an accurate measure of what he perceives to be the Irish business mood.
Dr von Pierer, who is due to retire from Siemens next year, told conference delegates of the need to operate a balanced business portfolio in order to survive through difficult times - the German group's activities range from medical systems to lighting, and power generation (including a plant at Huntstown in Co Dublin) to telecoms.
"Our balanced portfolio helps keep us independent of certain market cycles, and we can compensate downturns in one business with strengths in another," he said.
Dr von Pierer believes it is more important to evaluate operations on a structural basis rather than watching how they perform in times of recession.
"I don't get worried in times of recession," he said. "Recession is not a fundamental structural problem."
Echoing a point made earlier at the conference by management guru, Prof CK Prahalad, Dr von Pierer said it was always foolish to maintain an activity for strategic, rather than for business reasons.
"Strategic reasons always mean subsidies," he said. "This is not something we can afford to do."
