Chairman of the Board of Management (CEO), Robert Bosch GmbH
Stefan Hartung, CEO Robert Bosch GmbH
About Stefan Hartung
Stefan Hartung, CEO of Robert Bosch, has addressed Germany's economic trajectory and the role of technology companies. Speaking at the MMK event in June 2025, Hartung said that 80% of Bosch's turnover is generated outside Germany and emphasized the need to "inspire many people in our country to study technical subjects," stating that without technical education "innovation and technological development will come to nothing." He described his role as requiring a focus on seeking opportunities and addressing competitiveness challenges directly. In a Bloomberg interview in October 2024, Hartung discussed a shift in Bosch's strategy toward the United States, citing investments in a semiconductor facility in California and the acquisition of JCI for the air conditioning business. Commenting on the Chinese market, he described a shift from a "pure production manufacturing based system" toward one driven by domestic innovation, with highly demanding, tech-driven consumers. On the subject of potential US tariffs, Hartung remarked that he was "not a big fan of tariffs" as they "hinder global collaboration."
Transcript (15 segments)
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Interviewer0:26
On stage here at the Speakers Corner, we have Dr. Stefan Hartung, CEO of Bosch, speaking here at the MMK about how Germany can get out of its sideways movement. Hello Mr. Hartung, nice that you are here. Good day. How does it feel for you to be at a university again? What feelings, what memories might come up?
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Stefan Hartung0:55
I was at university for 10 years, I was at university for quite a long time, not only studying but also working at the institute afterwards. So for me it's both: on the one hand, a place of learning where you get to know a lot of people and can really do a lot of new things, but at the same time it was also my first job. I took my first scientific steps there, and it also brought me a little into professionalism. University is a great thing, isn't it?
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Interviewer1:20
Today you are responsible not only for one of the largest German companies but also for a very traditional company in Germany, Bosch. Bosch is currently undergoing major changes, it is in transition. How do you define your role as CEO in this context?
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Stefan Hartung1:39
Well, Bosch has always been in transition, otherwise we wouldn't have existed for so long. Companies can only exist as long as they constantly change. That's completely normal. When you come from the mid-19th century, you've had to experience so many changes in the waves of history and also survive physically. Then you know that this company has the power to change. But you have to keep mobilizing it, because there are also phases where you don't have to change anything. And that wasn't so long ago. We had about 10 years where we didn't have to change much, things went pretty well. Now is a phase where we need to change a lot because of climate change, we've had very strange shocks with a pandemic that we've never had before. So now it's about mobilizing the company again in its power. That is change.
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Interviewer2:31
Bosch was also responsible for prosperity and employment here in Germany for decades. How do you ensure that you continue to function as a job engine and economic engine here in Germany in the coming decades?
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Stefan Hartung2:48
Yes, we are truly based in Germany, with many employees who are very efficient, but of course they are becoming fewer due to demographics, that's clear. On the other hand, there are very important core areas for us, especially in research and development, advanced development, and also in large development departments. And we work here with large customers. The most important thing is that we always extend our arm from here into the world. 80% of our sales are not in Germany, of course. And at the same time, we remain vital, innovative, and modern in Germany itself.
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Interviewer3:27
You bear a lot of responsibility, you partly have the future of Bosch in your hands. Do you ever have moments of doubt? What is life like as a CEO?
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Stefan Hartung3:37
No, in this role you can't have doubts. Otherwise you shouldn't take the role. You have to set the doubts aside. It's more about looking for opportunities, getting the tasks done that really need to be done. You can't go around things, that doesn't work. Take competitiveness for example. When you realize that you are not competitive in an area, then you have to change something. You can't just let it go, because today's time is such that competition is fully played out worldwide. And we are also not a harmless company for our competitors.
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Interviewer4:10
And what opportunities, what changes in the economy but also at Bosch are you driving? What motivates you to get up every day and keep going?
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Stefan Hartung4:19
Well, it's a very strange time at the moment. On the one hand, we have these crises, these worries, these rapid changes where we ask: does it work? Can we do it? On the other hand, we also have radical technological developments. Take artificial intelligence, we have experienced it anew again and again over the past 12 months, and it continues. We now see that completely new applications are being unlocked every day for what we do, namely we can incorporate such technologies into products, and that naturally drives us.
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Interviewer4:51
That's good. Then tell me concretely, what innovations, what products is Bosch currently working on?
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Stefan Hartung4:58
We are one of the last large international suppliers that still offers automated driving functions in the Level 2+ area, i.e. hands-free driving. This is a fantastic story because it now works with much fewer large computers and therefore becomes cheaper. That is the key issue with automated driving: not that it works, but that you can produce it at a price that is affordable. And we are not talking about 20,000 euros that you would pay for it, nobody wants that. We are talking about a few hundred to a thousand euros that you might spend. And that is an exciting thing. At the same time, artificial intelligence in the oven, for example, is a fantastic topic. We all know when you make something in the oven, you often don't pay attention to the time, and when it's too late, it's not so nice anymore. The pizza is a bit dark. We can now detect that fantastically with camera technology and control it using AI from language models, because language models know what a dark brown pizza looks like. And we can build that into the oven, and then it works automatically.
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Interviewer6:09
So when I listen to you, I get the feeling that you are looking quite confidently into the future. What expectations do you have, in that context, for events like today, here at the MMK?
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Stefan Hartung6:22
Yes, the most important thing we have to do here is to inspire many people in our country to study something technical, because without a technical degree, innovation and technological development will come to nothing. That's why this event is very important so that people can imagine that the effort of slogging through mathematics and physics, and saying, well, an engineering degree, as strenuous as it may be, could be something interesting for me. That would be a great contribution for this.
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Interviewer6:54
A little work is part of it. Thank you very much for the conversation. Thank you.