Dear reader,
Deutsche Bahn is currently taking aim at itself in a video campaign with Anke Engelke (59). Well done in itself, but many travelers will hardly be able to laugh about it. Honestly, me neither. It wasn’t until Saturday that we as a small family had a special train experience. Traveling with a baby, we had booked a toddler compartment for a trip from Würzburg to Berlin. But the ICE that started in Munich didn’t even reach Würzburg. He was already taken off the track in Nuremberg. One could get over it if the railway were able to reserve seats in the baby-friendly area for one of the following trains. But she isn’t. “We still have room for improvement,” said the poor employee at the Würzburg travel center.
You can see it that way in a very euphemistic way. You can find out in one of our topics of the week whether there is any hope for improvement at all or whether Anke Engelke remains the railway’s final answer to its unacceptable situation:
Who hasn’t tried to be a railway boss and who hasn’t failed? From the corporate Rambo Hartmut Mehdorn (83) to the agile man-catcher Rüdiger Grube (74) to the quiet numbers cruncher Richard Lutz (61) – everyone left behind rubble and helplessness. Now Evelyn Palla (52) is trying it out. They received a lot of congratulations, it almost seems like pity. The South Tyrolean approaches her task with, among other things, a new leadership philosophy; she not only wants to be approachable, but also wants to do something about it. Last year, Palla also got her train driver’s license. But she will need more to master this hellish job. Michael Machatschke analyzes what the chances are
.
Roman Arnold (62) has been back in charge at Canyon since September 1st. The founder is back – and wants to go back to the roots with the world-famous bicycle manufacturer. The previous boss, Nicolas de Ros Wallace (50), had brought in new influences in recent years after holding management positions at big names like Nike. But he wasn’t happy with it at Canyon. As with many other two-wheeler manufacturers, clear signs of braking were recently visible. Arnold now wants to wipe them off the asphalt with more bicycle know-how. My colleague Lutz Reiche met him for his first interview since his return and reported: The 1.97 meter giant speaks quietly, but has a lot to tell. “Canyon is my life’s work,” says Arnold and promises: “I will deliver.”
The problems at Volkswagen don’t stop. Regardless of whether it’s the brand (Audi, Porsche) or the market (China, North America) – the list of defects is long. Volkswagen, it seems, now has more construction sites than brands. CFO Arno Antlitz (55) now wants to strike again with the savings hammer. 12 billion euros of additional cash flow are needed. Not at some point, but in 2026. “This magnitude at such short notice; it has never happened before,” commented one of the company’s top management. My colleague Michael Freitag writes in his inside report: There are still no brilliant ideas about how Antlitz’s wish could be fulfilled
.
The last semiconductor shortage was barely two years ago and the auto industry is hit again. Welcome to the next “super crisis”. The political struggle over the chip manufacturer Nexperia is becoming increasingly wild. At the weekend, the newly appointed Nexperia boss warned in front of our own products from China
. The case is turning into a disaster for car manufacturers and suppliers. And faster than feared: The first production outages will probably occur this week
.
I hope your chip supplies at home are doing better.
Yours, Christoph Seyerlein
Do you have any wishes, suggestions or information that we should take care of journalistically? You can reach my colleagues in the Mobility team and me at manage.mobility@manager-magazin.de
.