Mercedes 2015 Annual Report Download - page 141

148 B | COMBINED MANAGEMENT REPORT | RISK AND OPPORTUNITY REPORT
Personnel risks and opportunities
Daimler’s success is highly dependent on its employees and
their expertise. With their ideas and suggestions, they are
involved in their respective activities and working processes
and thus contribute considerably every day to improvements
and innovations.
To support this process, the Daimler Group has established an
ideas management system through which employees can
submit ideas and suggestions for improvements. The processing
of the information received by this system and the integration
of ideas in an assessment process carried out by experts and
persons in charge of the respective processes is supported by
the established IT system “idee.com”. This is intended to ensure
the systematic and sustained promotion of employees’ ideas
and suggestions for improvement.
Furthermore, workgroups create processes and instruments to
produce new business ideas and to establish inter-departmental
cooperation. In this context, an online community exists in
the area of business innovation to which suggestions for dis-
cussions can be submitted, which all employees can assess
and develop further.
Competition for highly qualified staff and management is still very
intense in the industry and the regions in which we operate.
The future success of the Daimler Group also depends on the
magnitude to which we succeed over the long term in recruiting,
integrating and retaining specialist employees. The established
human resources instruments take such personnel risks into
consideration, while contributing toward the recruitment and
retention of staff with high potential and expertise and ensuring
transparency with regard to the resources of the Daimler Group.
One focus of human resources management is the targeted
personnel development and further training of the workforce.
Employees benefit for example from the range of courses
offered by the Daimler Corporate Academy and from the trans-
parency created by a uniform worldwide performance and
potential management system. Due to demographic develop-
ments, the Group has to cope with changes relating to an aging
workforce and has to secure a sufficient number of qualified
young persons with the potential to become the next generation
of highly skilled specialists and executives. We address this
issue by taking appropriate measures in the area of generation
management. If this risk materializes, depending on the size
of the personnel shortage, an impact is to be expected on the
Group’s activities and thus also on the earnings of the Daimler
Group. Further risks exist in the context of collective bargaining
negotiations concerning wages and general conditions. There
is no segment-specific assessment of the human resources risk
because the described risks are not related to any specific
business segment, but are valid for all segments. The category
of personnel risks is unchanged compared with the previous
year with regard to their impact and probability of occurrence.
Risks and opportunities related to associated companies,
joint ventures and joint operations
Cooperation with partners in associated companies, joint
ventures and joint operations and other types of partnerships
is of key importance for Daimler. Along with ensuring better
access to growth markets and new technologies, equity interests
and joint ventures help us exploit synergies and improve
cost structures and thus enable us to successfully respond
to competitive pressures in the automotive industry.
Daimler generally bears a proportionate share of the risks and
opportunities of its associated companies, joint ventures and
joint operations. The possible risks include negative financial
developments and delays in setting up development and pro-
duction structures in equity interests and joint ventures, which
can negatively impact the achievement of growth targets in
the affected segments. The related risks and opportunities are
allocated to the respective risk and opportunity category in
the Management Report. The remeasurement of an associated
company, joint venture or joint operation can result in risks
and opportunities relating to the corresponding carrying value
for the segment to which it is allocated. A disposal or the busi-
ness situation of an associated company, joint venture or joint
operation can also cause financial obligations or expected
revenue might not materialize. Risks from associated companies,
joint ventures and joint operations exist in the Mercedes-Benz
Cars, Daimler Trucks and Mercedes-Benz Vans segments, as well
as in the associated companies, joint ventures and joint opera-
tions directly allocated to the Group. All associated companies,
joint ventures and joint operations are subject to a continuous
monitoring process so that they can be promptly supported if
required and their profitability can be ensured. The recoverable
value of investments is also continually monitored. Due to cur-
rent developments in worldwide equity markets, the probability
of occurrence of these risks has increased compared to the
previous year from “low” to “medium”.
Financial risks and opportunities
The following section deals with the financial risks and
opportunities of the Daimler Group. Risks and opportunities
can have a negative or positive effect, respectively, on the
profitability, cash flows and financial position of the Daimler
Group. The probability of occurrence and possible impact
of these risks and opportunities is presented in table

B. 61.
In principle, the Group’s operating and financial risk exposures
underlying the financial risks and opportunities can be divided
into symmetrical and asymmetrical risk and opportunity profiles.
With the symmetrical risk and opportunity profiles (e.g. cur-
rency exposures), risks and opportunities exist equally, while with
the asymmetrical risk and opportunity profiles (e.g. credit
and country exposures), the risks outweigh the opportunities.