How Does Bmw Motivate Its Employees?
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MAY 1, 2006
SPECIAL REPORT
How does BMW motivate its employees?
BMW's Dream Factory
Sharing the wealth, listening to even the lowest-ranking workers, and rewarding risk have paid off big time.
The car looks like the victim of some mad scientist's experiment gone awry. Inside a research lab in Munich, a BMW 5 Series sedan is splayed open, with electronic gadgets and wires spewing in all directions. The project: an onboard computer that will recognize you, then seek out information you want and entertainment you love. While you sleep, your BMW will scour the Net -- via Wi-Fi and other connections -- collecting, say, 15 minutes of new jazz followed by a 10-minute podcast on the energy industry. It may sound far-fetched, but for BMW's research wizards it's yet another way to woo customers by personalizing cars. This intelligent machine will grow to know you better every day, constantly learning what you like by monitoring your choices. The brains of the system might even tag along with you on a business trip in the form of a "smart card," instructing the Bimmer you rent in Beijing to load up your daily fix of news and music. When Hans-Joerg Vögel, the 38-year-old project chief, hops in the car's front seat and fires it up, his excitement is palpable. Launching into a riff on the wonders of melding the virtual world with the nuts and bolts of an automobile, Vögel says the next generation of BMW 5 Series and 7 Series sedans will be the most Net-savvy cars on the road. And if he's right, it'll be because Vögel had the vision to see the importance of the technology and the gumption to build it so everyone at the automaker could recognize its potential. "We are encouraged to make decisions on our own and defend them," says Vögel. "Risk-taking is part of the job."
Vögel's project is only a tiny part of BMW's vast innovation machine. Just about everyone working for the Bavarian automaker -- from the factory floor to the design studios to the marketing department --
MAY 1, 2006
SPECIAL REPORT
How does BMW motivate its employees?
BMW's Dream Factory
Sharing the wealth, listening to even the lowest-ranking workers, and rewarding risk have paid off big time.
The car looks like the victim of some mad scientist's experiment gone awry. Inside a research lab in Munich, a BMW 5 Series sedan is splayed open, with electronic gadgets and wires spewing in all directions. The project: an onboard computer that will recognize you, then seek out information you want and entertainment you love. While you sleep, your BMW will scour the Net -- via Wi-Fi and other connections -- collecting, say, 15 minutes of new jazz followed by a 10-minute podcast on the energy industry. It may sound far-fetched, but for BMW's research wizards it's yet another way to woo customers by personalizing cars. This intelligent machine will grow to know you better every day, constantly learning what you like by monitoring your choices. The brains of the system might even tag along with you on a business trip in the form of a "smart card," instructing the Bimmer you rent in Beijing to load up your daily fix of news and music. When Hans-Joerg Vögel, the 38-year-old project chief, hops in the car's front seat and fires it up, his excitement is palpable. Launching into a riff on the wonders of melding the virtual world with the nuts and bolts of an automobile, Vögel says the next generation of BMW 5 Series and 7 Series sedans will be the most Net-savvy cars on the road. And if he's right, it'll be because Vögel had the vision to see the importance of the technology and the gumption to build it so everyone at the automaker could recognize its potential. "We are encouraged to make decisions on our own and defend them," says Vögel. "Risk-taking is part of the job."
Vögel's project is only a tiny part of BMW's vast innovation machine. Just about everyone working for the Bavarian automaker -- from the factory floor to the design studios to the marketing department --