With the ContiTeamCup, Continental staged what was probably the greatest corporate world cup playoffs anywhere in the world. Conti Executive Board member for human resources, Thomas Sattelberger, speaks out on whether a sports festival can contribute to economic success. And whether football might just be more important than a corporation's technical know-how.

QUESTION: Mr. Sattelberger, in the ContiTeam Cupfinals, the men's team from the Continental plant in Puchov, Slovakia, and the women's team from Cuautla, Mexico, emerged victorious. Would you have thought that Slovakia and Mexico would end up world champions in 2006?

SATTELBERGER: Why not? Teams from Eastern European and Central and South American have long boasted an outstanding football tradition. Slovakia and Mexico both performed excellently and earned the title of world champion. The Mexican women, above all, were so full of enthusiasm that it was a special treat to watch them play.

QUESTION: Aren't you a bit disappointed that the German teams were eliminated already in the preliminary round?

SATTELBERGER: To tell you the truth, my heart is with every single country. I feel bad for every team that is eliminated and am happy for every country that makes it into the finals. Continental is a globally active company, with over 100 plants in 27 countries. The teams come from all around the world, just the same as in the real World Cup tournament. As Executive Board member for human resources, my patriotism applies to all of Conti, not to a specific country.

QUESTION: What gave birth to the idea of carrying out a corporate world cup anyway?

SATTELBERGER: It all started with an idea modestly put forth by one of our employees, Petra Hamich, in Corporate Communications. Probably few projects at Conti have been so vigorously promoted by a single person as the ContiTeamCup was by Ms. Hamich. She instigated the tournament with enormous élan and persistence and with a very high frustration tolerance. The Executive Board was very taken with the idea right from the beginning. Nevertheless, we clearly underestimated the degree of enthusiasm it would engender worldwide. It says a lot about our company that in addition to our sponsoring of the FIFA World Cup and our diverse activities on behalf of football, we can also put on a tournament as successful as the ContiTeamCup within the company itself. We are a top performing company that has established records in terms of profitability year in, year out. This can be achieved only with sportmanship, with team spirit. We can all be satisfied if our success in business is also reflected in impressive athletic feats within the company.

QUESTION: Would you have expected a dynamic development of this kind? More than 100 men's teams from 75 plants in 26 countries and 16 women's teams from ten countries vied for the title.

SATTELBERGER: As I said, I too was taken aback by the enormous enthusiasm – and, above all, by the unbelievable commitment of the women's teams. At the outset we were uncertain whether we would even manage to come up with four teams – and then there were so many in the end. And they worked out like mad! There were teams where a few of the players had to first learn how to play football. Aat the beginning some of them didn't even know just what "offsides" meant. The women, in particular, took great pains in getting ready. The enthusiasm for the women's tournament is very important to me insofar as Conti's success is due not only to our male employees but in equal measure to our female employees.

QUESTION: Does a football tournament contribute anything to the company's economic success?

SATTELBERGER: We didn't link the project to economic objectives. We launched it because there is a certain goal-oriented sportsmanship to the mindset at Conti.  "Uniting Goals" was the interlinking idea. Of course, the ContiTeamCup expresses symbolically the fact that Conti is a company of winners. And if, above and beyond that, the tournament is of economic advantage for us in motivational terms – something that obviously cannot be calculated in euros and cents – then that is a nice spin-off that we are, of course, quite happy about.

QUESTION: Can you cite an example?

SATTELBERGER: There was a good motivational effect in Mexico. In a preliminary round match, Continental's new plant in Las Colinas played against the plant in Silao. And the new plant, Las Colinas, won. In the wake of this victory, it proved easier to tackle start-up difficulties and productivity problems at the Las Colinas plant. The very positive state of mind of the victorious team, namely, spread to everyone at the plant. In the end this feeling of "We are champions" gets everyone pulling together for the common cause.

QUESTION: You have gathered a great deal of experience in human resources management and published a few books on the topic – the "Human Resources Consultancy Manual", for instance. Don't you have to add a chapter now on the "Significance of Football for Human Resource Management"?

SATTELBERGER: The significance of sports in general is a very important topic. It is not for no reason that companies used to have sports clubs; regrettably, these have disappeared for the most part. People expressed their loyalty to the company via sports. And by the same token, at the other end companies did a lot to bring employees together to enjoy their time off with one another. Insofar, I personally view "athletic activity" as an aspect of corporate culture and attach greater importance to it now than I did just a few years ago. This is especially true in the aftermath of the very impressive enthusiasm displayed in the ContiTeamCup.

QUESTION: Might we soon expect to see a Conti plant eleven à la Bayer Leverkusen?

SATTELBERGER: Certainly not. You see time again where this brings you. Just take a look at Leverkusen and everything that was being talked about this season. Much of it wasn't exactly flattering for the company that stands behind this association. At Conti football will continue to be a very low-key matter conducted on a voluntary basis. In this context football should not have a marketing effect. Instead, it should help us internally to engender a stronger feeling of togetherness and help us nurture good sportsmanship.

QUESTION: To be sure, the headlines Continental made last year weren't all good. Think of the termination of passenger tire production in Stöcken. Isn't it possible that a football tournament, a joyous festival of this kind, will also give cause for annoyance among employees.

SATTELBERGER: I don't know whether the TeamCup has given rise to any annoyance. Needless to say, the employees in Stöcken are concerned about their future. But Conti's spirit of togetherness remains unbeaten, as is indicated by our employee surveys. It is, unfortunately, a fact of corporate life that grounds for elation and successes alternate time and again with painful restructuring measures that create quite a stir. Every year we are faced with four or five restructuring tasks around the world. Keeping in mind that we are active at over 100 plants, then restructuring and competitiveness is, basically, a never-ending job.  That the plant in Hanover-Stöcken, with its passenger tire production, is now hit by a measure of this nature is painful in this context but not unusual. We are not a German but an international company – admittedly, one whose headquarters and historical roots are in Germany. But this doesn't give the German plants vested rights as far as competitive standing and restructuring is concerned. What would our employees in Malaysia or Mexico say if we would apply a different yardstick in evaluating their performance than we do here in Stöcken? As Executive Board member in charge of an international workforce, I have to bear in mind that over 50,000 of our employees are not German.

QUESTION: You mentioned once that human resource management has improved in the last few years as far as its methods are concerned but also become more soulless. Can football help breath new life into human resources' soul?

SATTELBERGER: There's no denying that many corporate areas have become much more hard-nosed, fact-oriented and businesslike in the last few years, the human resources area being one of these. In the process the emotional side of things, a sense of belonging, has been left by the wayside to a certain extent. A good dozen teams were still playing in the final round of the ContiTeamCup, but prior to that around 150 teams battled it out for the honor of being Conti champion. That translated into as many as 2000 employees meeting for hundreds of encounters. Whole factories, whole locations, indeed, whole countries got caught up in the enthusiasm. The players' families came to the stadiums and provided for a rousing atmosphere. Insofar football actually contributes to giving the company – and thus human resources as well – more soul.

QUESTION: "Lifelong learning is a special aspect in today's work world." That's something else you have said. What can we learn from football?

SATTELBERGER: Life-long learning is often understand to mean strictly technical learning. That is only half the story, though, because alongside brushing up one's technical competence, it is also a matter of brushing up one's methodological and social competence. So what can we learn from football? Cooperation, the meaning of team spirit, discipline in playing one's own role in the team, the ability to manage one's own strengths to make the most of them. These kinds of competence are quite as important as technical know-how.

QUESTION: In football there are fouls, dives and formation of packs. Can poor sportsmanship mesh with Conti's corporate philosophy?

SATTELBERGER: You'll encounter things of this sort in football and in business. There, as well, things sometimes get out of hand and can get pretty nasty for a while. And like the umpires in football, we as companies exert an educative influence on those involved in such cases.

QUESTION: Is it conceivable that in the wake of the ContiTeamCup a champions league of business companies will now be formed? Where Conti champions face off against champions from Mercedes, Michelin and Airbus.

SATTELBERGER: Well, in this regard I remain true to my Swabian roots. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This idea goes a bit too far as far as I am concerned. I would be happy, though, were we to stage another ContiTeamCup here in Hanover in four years' time, prior to the next World Cup, and allow the Conti world football tournament to become a tradition.

QUESTION: Might it not be possible to cull a Conti European champion in two years' time parallel to the European Cup?

SATTELBERGER: I don't think we should let the matter become too involved. A lot of work and expense goes into a tournament of this kind – just ask Ms. Hamich. Another Conti world cup in four years is a target worth striving for. Now I have to convince my colleagues on the Executive Board, though. What's more, Europe is for a global company too provincial.

QUESTION: Will an Executive Board team take to the field?

SATTELBERGER: There aren't enough of us on the Board for a football team. Thank God, I have to say in view of my football qualities. I wouldn't be of much help getting us into the finals. The last time I played was as a kid, if I remember right – on an open field, with makeshift goals. If I were asked today, I would, of course, be in on it. But to be quite honest, that would have more of a symbolic value for the team than an athletic.