He speaks of cultural change and humility: Herbert Diess wants to change Volkswagen. The focus will be on returns – and employees can expect little consideration.
Thursday, 03.05.2018
5:42 pm
She sounded good, the talk of Herbert Diess at the general meeting of Volkswagen shareholders in Berlin. The group must be “more honest, open and decent,” said the new VW boss. It must be clear that not everything that is legal is legitimate. An open corporate culture is necessary, in which contradiction is not stifled but rewarded.
It can be assumed that this is serious, after all, the engineer has his career at Bosch and BMW So, in companies that already cultivated a special corporate culture, when in Wolfsburg still quite authoritarian conditions set the tone.
But on Thursday in the Citycube on the Berlin fairgrounds Diess may also have thought of ensnaring his adversaries. Because the way, how VW with his clients related to the diesel scandal has left many angrily left behind.
imago / Sven Simon
However, there was not much opposition from the plenum at the Annual General Meeting. The good numbers contributed as well to the rather relaxed mood, as the speech of the chief executive. He quickly looked ahead after the self-critical introduction and provided sketches of how the group would be organized to speed decisions and avoid duplication of effort. The central issue was the requirements that the Mobility in the future for the auto companies. These include electric propulsion, robotic cars and digital platforms on which people organize their travels.
Feelings do not matter
He will hardly pay attention to sensitivities, regardless of whether they concern the Porsche / Piëch clan or the employees. What turns out to be ballast, is questioned.
An example could be the motorcycle manufacturer Ducati, the corporate patriarch Ferdinand Piëch once brought to the VW world. Diess’ predecessor Matthias Müller had once tried to get rid of the complicated business, but the family had quickly buried the plans. Also for Diess Ducati is not part of the core business and should disturb the focus on the essentials.
For employees, the new course is likely to be difficult. Already a year ago Diess, at that time as VW brand boss, had clashed with Bernd Osterloh, chairman of the general works council, because of his brisk pace. Osterloh recently confirmed in the “Handelsblatt” that the dispute was resolved and that they had found a way to each other; but with the harmony it could be over quickly, if the system change from the burner and the electric drive not only creates additional jobs, but which costs.
In addition, there are signs that loyalty between the board of directors and works councils is no longer so much as in the era of Piëch. This risks the conflict rather than the lazy compromise – even if he has to deal with influential representatives such as Osterloh or IG Metall boss Jörg Hofmann, the deputy chairman of the supervisory board. If necessary, he is willing to undermine an agreement if it does not meet his expectations. So he tried in early 2017, a change after months of dispute agreed austerity in his spirit to change subsequently. Thanks to the support of the family clan he got away with it, although even the former CEO Müller had beaten on the side of the employees.
Pecking order clarified
Who governs in the house in the future, provided a supervisory board Wolfgang Porsche just before the Annual General Meeting in an interview with the “star” clear: This and no one else. “Employees should have a say in issues that affect employees, but they should not claim co-management.”
Obviously Osterloh understood the message. In the “Handelsblatt” he did not even attempt to relativize the demands of Porsches. And the argument with Diess? Long forgotten. The new boss is the right man, said the works council chairman: “With his three years at VW he knows the company, but he is more free in his decisions than other managers in front of him.”