He had targeted the chair of the BMW boss, he finally won the Volkswagen. Herbert Diess, who succeeds Matthias Müller at the head of the group of twelve brands, landed in July 2015 in Wolfsburg, the historic headquarters of Volkswagen, just a few weeks before the outbreak of the scandal on faked engines.
The Munich is then a defector of BMW. In 19 years, Herbert Diess has managed two factories, the motorcycle division, worked in production, purchasing and development, before returning to the board in 2007.
But Harald Krüger knew better than him to convince the owners of the group to entrust him the post of number one.
“Cost killer”
Dismissed, Herbert Diess enters the competition. In Wolfsburg, he took the lead of the Volkswagen brand, a problem division he strives to straighten. By doing what he does best: reduce costs.
The leader, who learned automotive technology and mechanical engineering at the university, has demonstrated the extent of his cost-killer talent at BMW, saving billions of euros during very tough negotiations with the pennies. -traitants.
Very good communicator, not hesitating to make jokes in small committee, the manager is also “the one who extracts the information, a poker player, a strategist”, writes the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “Man has no problem making enemies. “
In Wolfsburg, he negotiates this time with unions and employee representatives in 2016 a major cost reduction plan, which provides 3.7 billion euros in savings and 30,000 job cuts. Talks turning sour and are the occasion of a fierce public confrontation with the powerful head of the EC, Bernd Osterloh.
House of Cards
Herbert Diess “acts in a profoundly anti-social way, he misses his word in the current implementation of the plan of the future and discards the agreements obtained together”, wrote last year, Bernd Osterloh, in an open letter addressed to the leader.
Yet it is with him that Herbert Diess, 60 in October, was probably allied to recover Matthias Müller’s chair. A scenario that “recalls the intrigues of the American series House of Cards,” says the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”.
“The most qualified”
“Conflicts are inevitable. It is necessary to be constructive and to find a solution, and it was the case it seems to me, nuance Jürgen Pieper, automobile analyst for the bank Metzler, about the clash between the two men. For the expert, “Herbert Diess is the most qualified candidate in the management board to take the lead of Volkswagen.”