Dear reader, when my daughter was younger, I often read stories to her from a thick collection. One story was about admitting mistakes. A girl accidentally broke a picture frame that was very important to her mother. Fearing that her mother would be angry, she blamed the dog. However, when she saw how much the mother punished the dog, she made a new picture frame and confessed the mistake to the mother. “It wasn’t me” became “I didn’t want to.”
A lesson that would probably suit many of us.
In an error culture report that the management consultancy EY published a few years ago, 64 percent of managers stated that they had not admitted to their own mistakes at all or only partially in the past two years. In the financial sector, this was the case for 82 percent of managers. However, 50 percent of all managers even admitted that this lack of error culture endangers innovation and competitiveness.
Sure, it's easier to initially dismiss the blame and blame it on others. That the Democrats did so well in the midterms? It can't be my fault, Donald Trump.
Richard Nixon, who denied any involvement of the White House in the Watergate affair - until tape recordings confirmed his role - remains legendary. Or Wirecard boss Markus Braun, who claims to have known nothing about any irregularities in the balance sheets.
In companies and institutions, managers in particular should set a good example and create the conditions to make it possible to admit mistakes and learn from them.
In the editorial team, we try to do this every day in our morning criticism - even if, fortunately, our mistakes have not had the impact of Watergate or the diesel scandal. If we make obvious mistakes, you, dear readers, also write to us regularly.
And once a year at our correspondents' conference, where all editors from home and abroad come together, there is even a fixed item on the program for mistakes: the style blossoms. Numerous linguistic errors from the past year are humorously presented on an open stage. And that is entertaining and educational at the same time.
I wish you a weekend in which you bear any flaws in style.
Claudia Panster, Head of Weekend & Report Department
A special kind of TV therapy: Donald Trump has blamed Fox News for the Republicans' defeat in the midterms this week. Fox News constantly focused on Democrats “and worse,” he wrote. And how does the broadcaster react to this? My colleague Sebastian Dalkowski looked at this.
“Thanks to AI, I save three hours a day”: Yasmin Weiß is a supervisory board member in several companies and researches the requirements that employees and managers face in the age of artificial intelligence at Nuremberg University. She has just published a book about it. The title: “What remains of humans when AI takes over?” Yes, and what remains? Weiß discussed this with Annika Keilen.
Red sauce, red numbers: When ketchup is consumed in Germany, in a good 42 percent of cases it is the red sauce from Heinz. No ketchup is as well known as Heinz, and no competitor comes close to Kraft Heinz's market share. And yet the US company is struggling with sales losses and red numbers in the 150th anniversary year of ketchup. How does that fit together? Katrin Terpitz took on the question.
Is there a job here - or just a goodie bag?: A career fair at a private university should be a no-brainer - at least that was the common thinking until recently. After all, the elite study here and they pay a lot of money for their studies. But now high potentials are also worried about their (professional) future. Are the old promises no longer valid even for the most privileged? Annika Keilen asked around at the trade fair.
The lonely president: Dissatisfaction with education and the cost of living has been driving people in France onto the streets for weeks. At the center of the crises: a president who once wanted to unite a divided France - and now stands almost alone. There is hardly anything left of the image of the eloquent, talented politician. How could this happen? asks Friederike Hofmann.
Florian versus Goliath: The market for private e-scooters is one of the fastest growing areas in the mobility sector in Germany. There are now 1.36 million e-scooters on German roads. Most come from the Chinese manufacturers Xiaomi and Segway. Egret founder Florian Walberg wants to prove that there is still room for a German manufacturer. Annika Keilen met him.
For less frustration at work: Almost half of Germans name their job as the main cause of frustration in their lives. The organizational researcher Hans Rusinek describes why this is the case in his book “Reclaim Work”. Both managers and each individual could change this. He explained to Milena Merten what tricks you can use to increase motivation.
The market makes the music: Matias Tarnopolsky is on a world tour with the New York Philharmonic. He is perhaps the most important person for the orchestra, but hardly any classical music fans know him. Because he's not on stage. As managing director, he directs the orchestra's economic fortunes. And that would be difficult without the money from big sponsors. Thorsten Firlus spoke to him about the Philharmonic's business model.
Apple's luxury problem: Apple has been a reliable source of sales and profits for shareholders for years. The share has gained 21 percent since the beginning of the year. That's more than the big AI stocks Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia managed, which have only been oscillating up and down for a year. But just like with the Apple Group, there is a catch with the share. Ulf Sommer explains which one it is.
Foundation as a funding project: Many foundations spend more on themselves than on their actual purpose and thus mutate into their own funding project. Our columnist Felix Oldenburg calls them zombie foundations and shows how this dead capital can be awakened.
