Operation Truffle

  • Client: The Daimler Group
  • Goal: To reveal and position the olive tree sculpture in the firm’s museum as an identifying sign for the fundamental transformation of the company.
  • Participants: 60 people from the Human Resources management team
  • Time frame: Entire process: 3 years, intervention: 48 hours

Truffle: subterranean-growing, tuberous, fruiting body; one of the world’s most expensive foodstuffs. The process of transformation takes over three years and initially serves as a working template for the organisation. The assignment: “Fetch an olive tree – one that’s at least as old as the company – from Piedmont. It must be found in its natural surroundings, dug up by your own efforts, transported and brought over to the museum in Stuttgart.” 60 men and women, leading executives from various production sites, set forth. They have 48 hours. With the mission accomplished, the tree will be unveiled as a central, sculptural symbol by the management board of the Human Resources division. It remains to this day in the museum, as a token of the human aspect of the company.