What’s next in the Volkswagen Group now that Herbert Diess has left? The place to negotiate that was right: the most important, or at least the best paid, VW managers had come together in the Convent do Beato António in Lisbon in the past few days. A former convent to retreat to together, not a bad idea for this company that is always so concerned with itself and less with the competition. The new boss, Oliver Blume, set a new tone right from the start. Not only a lot of “we” came from him, that was expected, but the native of Braunschweig was brought to the top. But then he also said something that you don’t know very well in Europe’s largest industrial group: “No one is bigger than the brands”. Not a personality cult like Herbert Diess or Martin Winterkorn.
Instead: More Audi, VW, Porsche, Seat, Skoda, Lamborghini and all the other brands. The main conflict there right now: who will get the new software first that will allow cars to drive a bit by themselves? There has been talk in the past few days that their own programmers could be downgraded, that Continental would become more authoritative in IT again, that would be a serious change from the previous plan of programming everything alone using the VW subsidiary Cariad. Blume answered his colleagues in a question and answer session on Friday: Please let me first talk to the Cariad colleagues and the development heads of the brands, then we will decide.
The position on another difficult topic – a political one – is also still open: How will Volkswagen fare with China in the future, and in particular with the plant in Xinjinag Province? The UN Human Rights Office sees the arbitrary arrest of members of the Uyghur minority there as evidence of “crimes against humanity”. A response from Volkswagen said they were “very concerned” about the report, but there was no evidence that there were any legal violations at the VW plant. Is Volkswagen still withdrawing from this region? What does “we” mean in human rights issues, that’s something Oliver Blume will have to answer soon.
Together with the VW supervisory board, he has already decided to reduce the board to nine people: sales manager Hildegard Wortmann and procurement manager Murat Aksel, two confidants of his predecessor Herbert Diess, have been downgraded one level. A reason for unrest actually, as well as the China topic, but Blume placed so much well-being at this Global Top Management Conference, “GTMC”, that something unusual happened in Lisbon on Friday afternoon: According to eyewitnesses, the new VW boss received standing ovations from the about 300 leaders. By the way, they are said to have let themselves be carried away by the new style when it came to choosing clothes: on Friday almost everyone wore a T-shirt. Just like flower the night before.