First appearance of Herbert Diess as VW CEO: Two offices for the double Volkswagen chief, five-year contract for predecessor Müller

04/13/2018

First appearance of Herbert Diess as VW CEO Two offices for the double Volkswagen chief, five-year contract for predecessor Müller

DPA

Herbert Diess

Timeshift in Wolfsburg: Herbert Diess takes over the post of Volkswagen CEO Matthias Müller, at the same time becomes the management structure of the group fundamentally rebuilt, manager-magazin.de shows you the first presentation of the new tour, here in the livestream. Below we summarize the most important statements.

10.30 clock: immediately the press conference in Wolfsburg begin. In advance, has already been chairman of the works council Bernd Osterloh laudatory about the new distribution of power at Volkswagen Show stock market chart uttered. Of course, he also has the rise of his temporary intimate enemy Diess with it more influence let buy.

Diess’ predecessor says goodbye with “thanks and pride”. The “Automobilwoche” quoted from a letter from Matthias Müller, who today is to go to the employees. He has learned a lot at the top over the past two and a half years “about our industry, the company and myself.” Volkswagen is “ready to make change courageous and consistent”.

10:36: Group spokesman Peik von Bestenbostel opened the round. Supervisory Board Chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch begins: “Yesterday was an important day for the Volkswagen Group.” He framed the corporate restructuring with superlatives. Since autumn 2015, the “biggest crisis in the company’s history” has largely been overcome with the diesel scandal. At the same time, the entire industry is facing its “biggest ever” revolution with digitization, autonomous driving and electromobility.

“Both have mastered our company very successfully,” reports Pötsch (with only slight restrictions) – enforcement. Müller mastered the rescue of the largest German company with “bravado”. “Volkswagen emerges strengthened from the diesel crisis,” claims Pötsch. Müller himself is not on stage.

10:43: Pötsch explains the known since the Supervisory Board meeting on Thursday evening particulars, Herbert Diess kept next to the post of CEO, his previous position as VW Brand Manager. He will be joined by a Chief Operating Officer – a newly created job that should be filled as quickly as possible.

Porsche CEO Oliver Blume, already a kind of observer on the board, move up to full-fledged corporate board.

The works council official Gunnar Kilian replace HR Director Karlheinz Blessing.

And purchasing manager Francisco Javier Garcia Sanz will also be adopted.

10.45 clock: Now sounds pithy Bavarian in Wolfsburg. “There is no reason to change course,” explains the new CEO. Ex-BMW manager Herbert Diess, on the Volkswagen Board of Management since 2015, only wants to usher in a “second phase” of the Group’s restructuring. “It’s about development and not revolution.”

“A more subsidiary management of the group” is possible with the division into six brand groups and the region of China – that means more ownership of the groups combined in groups. “We create the conditions to become faster in decisions and their implementation.” Volkswagen is streamlining the management structure to become more agile.

10.50 clock: In a nutshell Dass has dealt with the “no revolution”, in which among others the heavy commercial vehicle division sent to the stock market.

Also read: How the truck division becomes a model for VW

Sprecher Bestenbostel opens the question and gives the journalist half an hour. “We also have other important dates.”

This first explains the sorting of car brand groups in volume (VW, Seat, Skoda, but also light commercial vehicles and the new mobility subsidiary Moia), Premium (Audi) and Super Premium (Porsche, Bentley, Bugatti, “in perspective” also the Audi Daughter Lamborghini) follow the logic of the market position – how expensive the products can be sold.

10:55: The component factories, in the past, once the subject of speculation about stock market plans should be assigned to the purchasing board – a clear signal that Diess they see less as an integral part of their own brands than competitors of external suppliers for the cheapest offer. “Make or buy” should not be decided by the board in the future.

With the motorcycle brand Ducati, the boss in the new structure does not seem to know what to do. The participation would be examined. Diess had previously said that fringe business could be sold. “For the time being”, Ducati and Lamborghini will continue to be part of Audi and thus the premium group.

11 am: Within a brand group, many decisions could be made in detail “faster and more efficiently” than at the group level, Diess explains the advantage of the new structure. The center should be “focused on the big strategic issues”.

“Porsche is very strong in production,” explains Diess, explaining why Porsche and super-premium boss Oliver Blume should also be responsible for production at Group level.

The distribution gets Audi- or premium boss Rupert Stadler, who is also a “very experienced” manager. The calls for Stadler’s dismissal because of his role in the diesel scandal have died down.

11:07: “An association of ships instead of a battleship,” Herbert Diess finds a new image for the structure of the group with 640,000 employees and 230 billion euros in sales. He is happy about the maritime word creation. Otherwise, “subsidiarity” is his favorite word of the day – so let’s do more from the bottom and decide only what is necessary above.

Frank Witter will be responsible for the group IT, he himself the networking of the vehicles, explains Herbert Diess. He wanted “no additional silo,” he explains the renunciation of its own digital department in the group. The “car as part of the Internet” is his great credo,

Also read: So Herbert Diess thinks about the most important VW topics

The purchasing board Volkswagen will occupy new in the coming months. Maybe you already have someone in your head, unkt Diess.

11:13: “I feel a bit Austrian, because I also have such a passport,” answers the native Munich Diess a private question. However, nationalities played a subordinate role in the Volkswagen Group. No problem, therefore, that supervisory board boss Hans Dieter Pötsch and some prominent representatives of the owner family Porsche-Piëch form a strong Austrian bank within the group.

11:16: Pötsch confirmed that the Truck & Bus Division from Braunschweig to Munich should – and claims that the group will not give up control of the company even after an IPO.

“Only those who do not do anything make mistakes.” This statement by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board is based on Matthias Müller. Pötsch squirms a bit to explain why the previous boss had to leave prematurely. You want a team that not only makes decisions, but also stands by them when the effects are felt. Was Müller too flexible in the headwind?

11:20: Diess also expressed his “Reschpekt” for Matthias Müller. On many strategic issues, the two agree. He clearly plays down his own long-felt ambitions. “I was then asked how we can develop this.”

That the so far known as union eater Diess suddenly as Buddy of works council Osterloh he takes it with a smile. “I have to get used to it, but it also has advantages.” The works council think strategically and assume joint responsibility, that is also sense of co-determination.

Also read: How the works council in Wolfsburg mitregiert

11:25: Pötsch explains the new role of Müller as a consultant. It is by no means a pro-forma solution to fulfill the current 2020 contract of the detached CEO. The 64-year-old gets a new five-year contract.

11.30: Almost forgotten: Herbert Diess also committed to cultural change, to better compliance and responsibility for better air in the cities. As a result of the diesel scandal, it was “just as well” that Volkswagen did more to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions than other manufacturers. The fact that this topic is only now being discussed clearly shows that the existential crisis triggered by Volkswagen’s waste gas fraud is officially over, the view is once again moving forward.

11:33: Interesting detail: Herbert Diess gets as a double Volkswagen CEO two offices in Wolfsburg – one on brand, one at Group level.

11:35: This sees no need for larger purchases. No wonder, he just wants to slim down the enormously swollen group.

And that’s already over. As fast as in the largest group in Germany, everything was turned upside down, the explanation of the change to the public is over. Several questions have to be left open for today.

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