End of the honeymoon period for Siemens' new boss Peter Löscher. He is trying to clean up the company following the bribery scandal but has been forced to issue a surprise profit warning because of delays to projects and contract cancellations, which will drag down its quarterly earnings by euro900m ($1.4 billion).
What does that have to do with bribery? Technically, not much. But it does raise questions about how management could have discovered all these problems all of a sudden. Which raises questions about whether they are all that effective changing Siemens' corruption-prone culture.
No surprises then that despite the attempts to transform the company and wipe out the corruption, Siemens is embroiled in a new corruption scandal, this time in Israel. The allegations are that bribes were paid to a former judge in order to promote the sale of turbines to Israel Electric Corporation (IEC).
Löscher clearly has his work cut out. He might want to end the culture of bribery but with Siemens, it's easier turning around a battleship.
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