There is one group at Volkswagen that CEO Herbert Diess is particularly critical of: the top management caste. Anyone who is “TMK”, in other words in the “top management circle”, should actually have outstanding professional competence and act and lead in an outstanding manner. There is usually a seven-figure salary for this. But Diess experienced it differently: Some would have too little entrepreneurship. But that way, he thinks, the change that he thinks is so necessary cannot be achieved: VW has to work faster, more efficiently and smarter in order to stand up to the new and really fast competitors from China or the USA – above all Tesla can.
Now he has brought these people together again and opted for the hugging tactic: more emotion, more heart, even towards the direct competitor. For three days, the 200 highest-ranking executives (almost all men) of the 662,575 people group met at the “Leadership Summit” in Alpbach in Tyrol. In the conference center, they should present their companies with strategies for making money, i.e. for the electric cars and robots of tomorrow. Diess even praised (“I am very happy with my team, it’s my dream team”) and finally the colleagues were allowed to write letters with their worries, needs and wishes. Somewhat contemplative, at first glance, even with the dress code: Diess wore traditional jackets with jeans.
Although the picture is deceptive, of course, because fun was by no means on the program, not even in the free time. Instead of sliding in the legendary “Lauser-Sauser”, we went to “Anaerobic Hiking”. One can imagine Diess leading his highly paid hiking company, which shuffles afterwards breathlessly even though they have all trained so diligently. And instead of talking about his own successes during the day, Diess mainly spoke about the successes of others: “I know some of you hate that,” he is supposed to have said when it came to challenges. “But first and foremost, it’s Tesla.” The gap to this competitor is growing. “They’ll be faster. They’ll deliver. They’ll be better at building cars. You’re the only brand that’s growing despite Covid.”
On one of the two evenings he switched to this biggest competitor via video as a “surprise guest”: Tesla boss Elon Musk. In Grünheide near Berlin, he plans to inaugurate a factory that will produce an e-car in under 15 hours. VW takes more than twice as long. The video switch was by no means unskillful as an incentive. And yet the tough driver apparently also has feelings: When Musk said that he once drove a VW, yes that it was an iconic brand, Diess’s eyes literally shone, says an observer.