Job sharing is one of the trends in the working world right now. Employees are increasingly sharing a workplace or a full-time position. This means that two people can work part-time and still take on a management position together, for example. Employees are more flexible, and ideally the employer benefits from twice the expertise.
Oliver Blume is now aiming for a special kind of job sharing. The 54-year-old engineer wants to do two top jobs alone – namely that of the CEO of the VW Group and that of Porsche in personal union. From September he will succeed Herbert Diess, who surprisingly had to leave, at the top of the group, but will keep his old job at Porsche: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday in Wolfsburg, Monday, Friday, Saturday in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. There really isn’t anything like that in German companies, perhaps apart from Thomas Rabe, who is the head of the media group Bertelsmann and the television company RTL.
The dual role poses a threat to the sports car company’s IPO
Manage Europe’s largest industrial group with an annual turnover of 250 billion euros and well over 600,000 employees on a part-time basis? That will not work – and can certainly harbor risks. Because the job at the top of VW requires full commitment, even if the board of the car manufacturer is unusually large with a total of twelve members. There are currently – despite the good earnings figures for the first half of 2022 – many unsolved problems at Volkswagen, to which predecessor Diess has so far failed to provide convincing answers. These include difficulties with the software, turbulence in the Chinese market, which is so important for VW, repeated discussions with the works council, and the continued switch to electromobility. The course taken by Diess away from the combustion engine towards new drives and in the direction of digitalization, Blume must continue against all resistance in the almost ungovernable group.
In addition, Blume’s dual function represents a serious obstacle to one of the group’s most important projects, namely the planned IPO of the sports car manufacturer Porsche – this Monday there will be (presumably good) Porsche half-year figures, and new details on the planned listing may also be expected . It should be one of the largest IPOs in Europe this year. Some investors and representatives of large funds are right when they criticize Blume’s future dual role. Because this also raises questions in this context.
Through the IPO, Volkswagen and the owner families Porsche and Piëch should not only receive a lot of money for the further transformation. Porsche should also become a bit more independent from the VW group and thus have more freedom of movement. But how is this supposed to be conveyed credibly when the top positions are in one hand? Just spend a lot of money and actually get no say in the process – important investors will certainly not take this risk, because that makes future Porsche shares unattractive.
Blume will not only be fully challenged with the forthcoming IPO, he also faces possible conflicts of interest. What is good from the VW Group perspective, such as leveraging synergies and developing joint models or drives, could be bad for Porsche’s new independence. The constellation is a risk for the planned IPO. In addition, the situation on the international capital markets is already fragile in view of the Ukraine war, the conflicts between China and Taiwan and a possible global economic downturn. VW should take Siemens as a role model. The influence of the Dax-listed healthcare division Siemens Healthineers is guaranteed by members of the Supervisory Board.
Blume’s dual function once again paints a bad picture of good corporate governance in the VW Group. The owner families want to give up as little influence as necessary, but still want to enjoy all the advantages of a stock exchange listing. But that is not possible without concessions. Blume has to decide on one of the two jobs.