Everything to do with Volkswagen management will be discussed here.
Here are my findings and thoughts on Volkswagen and Porsche CEO, Oliver Blume;
Positives
- Impressive track record at Porsche AG.
- His consious-driven nature will likely improve teamwork and collaboration between brands as the company transforms from ICE vehicles to EVs.
- His decision to give Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi and Porsche more power over other brands will probably make the company lean.
- His new management appointees are mostly insiders with vast experience and track record.
- I think it was probably the best move to restructure CARIAD, a loss-making software unit.
- He has high technical experience having been with the company for close to 30 years and having been a board member in charge of production since 2013.
- Unlike his predecessor who wanted to develop 60% of software in-house, Blume is much more open to partnerships.
Negatives
- Blume is a champion of internal combustion vehicles and thinks they still have a bright future. This will likely reduce his committment towards tranformation to EVs.
- Blume postponed Trinity project to 2028 from 2026 and had given up the idea of SSP platform in Porsche models. CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Thomas Schäfer was against the postponement.
- He is a champion of iconic designs. This may not be good for the transformation to EVs models, especially given that some ID models have been considered as dowdy and downmarket compared to their rivals.
- His conscious-driven nature may give the controlling families and works council an opportunity to control him.
- The huge number of management changes may reduce morale and progress in the company.
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The other members of the management board are veterants. For instance;
CFO, Dr. Arno Antlitz;
- Has been with Volkswagen since 2004.
- Made his reputation by being tough on costs when he was the CFO of Volkswagen Brand from 2010 to 2020.
- Was an ally of former CEO Harbet Diess, who gave up his demand for contract extension to have Antlitz appointed to the board.
Ralf Brandstätter, CEO of Volkswagen AG China;
- Has been with the company for 30 years.
- As COO and CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, he led the production of ID.4 and ID.3, all-electric models, which were received positively by the customers.
- His 8 year procurement experience will probably help the company deal with Chinese partnerships.
Thomas Schäfer, CEO of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars Brand;
- Became CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars in July 2022 but has been with the company for 10 years.
- Already, his influence at Volkswagen Passenger Cars is being felt as TopGear reports âSpeak to people around the brand and itâs clear he encourages an open atmosphere and invites input from junior staff â a far cry from CEOs of old.â
- Unlike his boss, Oliver Blume, he doesnât support synthetic fuels.
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Volkswagenâs work council has demanded for more information regarding the cost-cut initiatives at the core brand.
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Daniela Cavallo, head of the works council said in a statement that programme milestones regarding the cost cuts were to be established and shared with employee representatives by October 1, but none so far.
âI call on the board to develop clear targets ⌠for all locations and all large entities within the brand,â she said.
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At its works council meeting, Cariad announced that they have hired Sanjay Lal as head of its software hub.
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The hub is in the process of developing two models for Volkswagen.
âThis hub will consist of a small team that will implement everything we need for rapid software development,â Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume said. âSpeed is the new imperative to stay competitive.â
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From August 2021, Sanjay Lal, was vice president of software platforms at Rivian, where he managed to develop a new software platform in record time.
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He was also the director of engineering at Tesla from July 2019 to August 2021.
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Lal also worked at Google for two years as director of android automotive.
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Bert Flossbach, co-founder of Flossbach von Storch criticised Volkswagenâs governance for its low valuations.
âEver since the diesel scandal, the flaws [in Volkswagenâs governance] have become clearly evident,â he said. âWe are aware of Volkswagenâs low [stock market] valuation but do not see any catalyst that could offset the discount to peers.â
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Flossbach added that decisions at Volkswagen are âhighly complex and tangledâ and that the controlling familiesâ goals âare not of a financial character.â
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Flossbach von Storch which has âŹ70bn of assets under management has invested in Volkswagenâs bonds and not its shares.
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- German newspaper Bild reported that Audi CEO Gernot Doellner plans to fire the Chief Technical Officer Oliver Hoffmann over stalled developments.
- However, Volkswagen Groupâs supervisory board will have the final say over the changes.
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Cariad employees feel the brand is approaching its end, blames it on bureaucratic culture
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Cariad employees are feeling sidelined following the Rivian partnership, the Financial Times reported.
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According to the employees interviewed, Cariad CEO Peter Bosch was not part of the Joint Venture (JV) talks while Sanjay Lal, a former Rivian and Tesla employee has stopped working on an architecture that he was brought in to build.
âThereâs so much chaos right now,â said one of the employees. âBut we know itâs more or less the end of Cariad.â
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One of the employees pointed out that Lal and his team could be absorbed into the JV.
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The employees pointed out that the problems facing Cariad are not technical but rather due to bureaucratic culture.
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Cariad has 6,000 employees.
https://www.ft.com/content/b861e949-76a2-4782-9c74-947dfb56b41a
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Cariadâs chief architect Sanjay Lal is set to leave the division
- Cariadâs chief architect Sanjay Lal is set to leave the division following a partnership with Rivian, Handelsblatt reported citing company circles.
- Sanjay Lal joined the company over a year ago from Rivian and was in charge of Software-Defined Vehicle Hub which will be integrated into the joint venture with Rivian.
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Volkswagen Brand North America CEO Pablo Di Si has been replaced with Rivianâs chief commercial officer
- Volkswagen Brand North America CEO Pablo Di Si has been replaced with Kjell Gruner.
- Volkswagen said Di Si stepped down from his position last week at his own request.
- Until his appointment, Kjell Gruner was the chief commercial officer (CCO) at Rivian, having joined in September 2023.
- Gruner also served at Porsche for about 13 years.
- Manager Magazin reported last month that Volkswagen was planning to fire Di Si due to underperformance of the North America Brand.
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Porsche is in talks to end CFOâs tenure early
- Porscheâs supervisory board has started talks to end the contracts of CFO Lutz Meschke and sales chief Detlev von Platen early.
- Both managers have been blamed for the companyâs poor performance.
- Meschke and Platen have been with the company for more than two decades.
- Meschke has been on the companyâs board since 2009 and is said to know the company like no other, Blume usually leaving the stage for him.
- It is also said that Meschke was increasingly becoming critical of Blumeâs ambitious electric plans and was becoming less satisfied with the role of a deputy.
Assessment
The rate of management changes at Volkswagen Group is becoming alarming, that I am beginning to think there might be problems with Blumeâs leadership style. I will provide additional assessment once we look into his tract record in detail since he took over.
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I had a look at Volkswagen Group management changes since January 2024. While the changes arenât very alarming as I had thought, they have been targeted at crucial roles across the brands such as sales and marketing and finance. This suggests that Blume may be blaming the under-performance last year more on execution and less on industry and macro factors. Here is a summary of the major changes since January 2024.
- Porsche plans to end the tenure of its CFO and sales chief.
- North America CEO was replaced in December 2024.
- Volkswagen brand swapped its CFO with that of SEAT in September 2024.
- Audi appointed new sales and marketing chief in August 2024.
- Volkswagen passenger cars replaced its sales and marketing chief in July 2024.
- Porsche China CEO was replaced in July 2024.
- Audi China CEO was replace in January 2024.
- Volkswagen Group China CTO was replaced in January 2024.
https://www.notion.so/Volkswagen-Management-Changes-18f950cb7377806da7d1ddb8fae093e8?pvs=4
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Hmm i am not sure if we have something unusual here. Volkswagen is so large and has so many brands and geographic regions so it has a lot of executives and some turnover is expected. I think we should do some research what the average tenure of those positions is esp. in the automotive industry (If we find an answer on that)
If executives stay on average 5-7 years for example i think this kind of turnover in one year we are seeing here is totally normal.
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- Porsche replaced its CFO with Jochen Breckner who has been with the company for 25 years and has been head of corporate development since 2018.
- Earlier this month, Porsche announced that the supervisory board was in discussion to end the term of its CFO and head of marketing early.
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WirtschaftsWoche magazine reported that Oliver Blume is planning to replace more board members at Porsche in the next few months, following the recent departure of CFO and head of sales.
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Blumeâs dual role to end after completion of restructuring and cost cut measures
Blume told WirtschaftsWoche magazine that his dual role at the company will end once he completes restructuring and cost-cut measures.
âMy dual role is important for the tasks at hand but not designed to last forever,â he said.