Alumni Story | Innovating for the Future of Auto Luxury

Marco Kiefer

Senior Manager Carline Controlling

Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Service

Global EMBA 2022

Marco has spent his entire career to date under the Mercedes-Benz AG umbrella group (previously Daimler AG until its renaming in 2022). His connection with the company began in his student years as he undertook a dual-study programme, completing a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering at the prestigious DHBW Karlsruhe university while also working through the Mercedes-Benz training programme. This gave Marco a firm understanding of the company’s different departments, allowing him to plot his future path.

Drawn to the procurement field, Marco’s early years with Mercedes-Benz gave him plenty of scope to travel. After numerous visits across North America, solidifying his understanding of Western auto markets and trends, his attention was drawn eastwards. 

“By 2017, I knew I wanted a change”, Marco remembers. “I’d seen North America, I knew what to expect, but Asia represented a whole new world of opportunities opening up, personally and professionally. I relocated to Beijing in 2018; my plan was to stay just for two years but I’ve been in China for six years now and I have no intention of leaving any time soon!”

The last six years have seen Marco get married (his wife is Chinese, and both his mother and father-in-law happen to be CEIBS alums as well), complete his Global EMBA (a long-held education ambition) and take on an entirely new business function when he assumed his current finance role in February this year. 

Taking stock of this whirlwind period, Marco believes that being in China has accelerated his personal and professional growth, where the business culture and broader landscape of fast-paced innovation has shaped him into a better and more adaptive business leader.

The whole Chinese auto industry is undergoing a once-in-a-generation transformation. Driven by the rise of intelligent in-vehicle technology and the rapid introduction of electric and hybrid powertrains, China has become a byword for auto innovation, shaping the future direction of the wider industry. 

Accordingly, global car brands are looking towards China with renewed interest, eyeing the speed of innovation and constantly reappraising how such changes might impact their offering both within China and beyond it.

“The pace of change is lightning-fast here,” Marco shares. “Everyone is innovating so boldly, eager to carve out a market-leadership position in their niche.”

Being part of such a febrile innovation ecosystem makes it difficult to predict when, where and how technological breakthroughs will be converted into industry-leading approaches. However, being directly involved with China’s auto market, and witnessing the rapid cycle of experimentation, refinement and product development, is becoming increasingly important to non-Chinese brands and OEMs. Ignoring or casually watching China from a distance comes with a steadily rising risk of reacting too slowly to major industry shaping trends.

Marco’s current role is a nuanced one. Together with his team, he works with the sales and product management departments to set, refine and review the optimum offering of current and future Mercedes-Benz models for the Chinese customers. 

“It’s always difficult, as the business landscape is constant shifting,” says Marco. “We need to be realistic. Our vision is to build the world’s most desirable cars. Desirability is what motivates luxury brand consumers in good economic times and bad. So that’s what we focus on; how do we make the entire offering attractive enough to the customer?”

Marco explains how this works in practice, starting with answering the critical question of what different market segments want from their Mercedes-Benz. 

“Desirability means different things to different people. For example, take a German and a Chinese purchaser – even if they are both highly familiar with the brand, and both are looking for a quintessential Mercedes-Benz experience, they may still want different things. Typically, German drivers focus on safety, reliability, and a smooth, noiseless drive. Contrastingly, to Chinese drivers, desirable means in-vehicle intelligence and connectivity. We have to understand and acknowledge market differences, and then satisfy them without compromising the integrity or consistency of the brand.”

Being involved, “on the ground” and closely connected to changing consumer needs and preferences is now an essential part of keeping a car brand relevant. Luxury auto brands don't need to chase every emerging consumer trend, but they must stay attentive to them and adapt when necessary.

For Marco and his team, maintaining this delicate balance requires a demanding combination of attention to detail, ambitious forward planning, and enough discipline to see the bigger picture rather than be overwhelmed by it. This isn’t possible by following a rigidly set strategy; it requires a great deal of flexible thinking to keep making the right call – and keep hitting a fast-moving target.

By Marco’s own admission, the learning curve of his finance role has been steep. Fortunately, he came to it well prepared.

While Marco has been with Mercedes-Benz since his student days, this year he had to step into a highly demanding new role within a completely different business function. Leaving behind nearly 10 years of procurement experience for a finance position is a daunting task, but it represents a change Marco has been planning and preparing for carefully.

“2022 was the right time for me to start my Global EMBA. I felt settled in China, settled in my career but I wanted to push myself to discover more about my own leadership capabilities and more about business in general. That meant seeking a change from procurement. To approach it successfully, I wanted a broader business mindset, and I knew from friends and family that CEIBS’ GEMBA programme would give me access to the right classmates and an alumni network who could help me achieve it.”

Despite the lingering difficulties of conducting a EMBA during the pandemic’s later stages, Marco believes the time he spent at CEIBS allowed him to better understand his own leadership style and how to finetune it to the demands of the new role he pursued and ultimately secured.

“You don't need to be in a leadership position to take the lead. That is one of the most important learnings GEMBA gave me. If you talk about hierarchical power, observing workplace hierarchies, Germany’s business culture values it quite highly, as does China’s; but from my classmates and professors I’ve learned not to be overly constrained by it. With my team I say: ‘Forget about any hierarchy; if you know what is needed, you speak out.’ When you’re in workplace environment where things move fast, this kind of direct communication where you empower your team is exactly what is needed.”

While Marco hopes to reconnect with his country of birth by pursuing a HQ role in Germany at some point in the future, his sights are solidly set on staying in China at this stage. Being in the epicentre of automotive change is a strong lure, and the innovations occurring in China right now will influence the course of the entire global industry, of the very nature of driving itself, for decades to come.