From Corruption to Transformation: The Rebirth of a Global Conglomerate

What do you do when you’re the CEO of one of the world’s most iconic companies? If you’re Joe Kaeser, you do things differently. In this episode, we’ll talk with the former CEO of Siemens AG and current chairman of the supervisory board of Siemens Energy about how he transformed the company—and how he thinks today’s business leaders must be more purpose-driven in their approach to societal and climate change.

But let’s back up. Three months into Joe’s role as CEO at Siemens AG, Joe found out the company was embroiled in a massive corruption scandal. The fallout informed how he handled crisis, change, and the future, and it’s part of what led him to make a colossal and, at the time, unpopular decision: to break Siemens AG up into three separate businesses. It was one of the most complicated, most massive business transformations of all time—and it paid off. This is an episode about the courage to change, the power of intuition, and leaders’ responsibility on matters that extend way past business.