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New VW boss shrinks the board – and misses predecessor Diess: “Teamwork in the foreground”

2022-09-01T15:22:09.198Z


New VW boss shrinks the board – and misses predecessor Diess: “Teamwork in the foreground” Created: 09/01/2022 17:07 By: Lisa Mayerhofer Porsche boss Oliver Blume replaces Herbert Diess at the helm of Volkswagen and orders the board to downsize. Wolfsburg – Change of leadership at Europe's largest car manufacturer: Porsche boss Oliver Blume took over the reins at the Volkswagen Group in Wolfsb


New VW boss shrinks the board – and misses predecessor Diess: “Teamwork in the foreground”

Created: 09/01/2022 17:07

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

Porsche boss Oliver Blume replaces Herbert Diess at the helm of Volkswagen and orders the board to downsize.

Wolfsburg – Change of leadership at Europe's largest car manufacturer: Porsche boss Oliver Blume took over the reins at the Volkswagen Group in Wolfsburg on Thursday.

He replaces Herbert Diess, who managed VW for four turbulent years.

Blume is to drive the transformation of VW towards electromobility and a strengthening of the software division.

He also wants to focus on a new management culture;

he sees himself as a "player coach" of a "sports team".

New VW boss Blume reduces the board from twelve to nine members

54-year-old Blume from Lower Saxony has been with Volkswagen for 28 years and was active in four of the Group's brands.

For the time being, he is also to remain head of Porsche – but experts expect Porsche to go public quickly and that Blume will then give up his top position there.

"Success is always the performance of a strong team," said Blume on his first day as VW boss.

"For me, teamwork, focus and implementation are paramount." This can certainly be seen as a tip against predecessor Diess - who received a lot of recognition for his work, but often acted alone and alienated employees.

Among other things, Blume would like to form a team from the board of directors again.

The Group Executive Board, which was significantly enlarged during Herbert Diess' time - the result of power struggles in the company - is to be reduced again.

And clearly: the board will shrink by a quarter from the last twelve to nine members in the future.

Oliver Blume has taken up his post as VW boss.

© Sven Hoppe/dpa

As confirmed by Volkswagen, sales, procurement, production and development are to be merged into a kind of "synergy department" - this also operates as "extended group management".

This leaves a total of nine individual items at the top management level.

Blume himself as chairman will "concentrate on strategy, quality, design and the software subsidiary Cariad," it said on Thursday after a resolution by the supervisory board.

Volkswagen: Porsche IPO remains the most important project

According to chief controller Hans Dieter Pötsch, the changes are aimed at reducing complexity and sharpening the scope of tasks.

In addition, they are intended to underpin the long-standing requirement that the group is only responsible for overall management and overarching issues – and that brands such as VW, Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Seat are given more “entrepreneurial responsibility”, as Blume added.

Cross-sectoral sectors such as purchasing and sales or the fields of development and production, which are characterized by more and more identical parts, are therefore to be bundled in the "extended management".

In this context, it is also about standardization and cost reduction.

The structural reorganization has almost no impact on staffing.

Hildegard Wortmann will remain responsible for sales, Murat Aksel for purchasing.

The head of development at Porsche, Michael Steiner, is now doing this job for the group as well. The same applies to Christian Vollmer from the core brand VW and the production department.

In the past few weeks, there had been speculation in some reports that some areas could be cut completely or that some executives could resign.

Volkswagen: Chief Financial Officer Antlitz has more responsibility

In addition to Blume, the new VW main brand boss and coordinator of mass business, Thomas Schäfer, Audi and luxury class boss Markus Duesmann, the HR director and head of the truck division, Gunnar Kilian, and China boss Ralf Brandstätter remain at the top level.

In addition, Legal Director Manfred Döss, Technical Director Thomas Schmall, IT Director Hauke ​​Stars and CFO Arno Antlitz belong to the core team of the Group Executive Board.

Antlitz will temporarily fill some functions together with Blume - because the IPO of Porsche AG is one of the most important projects in the coming months.

Volkswagen with its ten brands has 670,000 employees in 120 plants worldwide.

The carmaker has annual sales of 250 billion euros.

(lma/AFP/dpa)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-09-01

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