Over the span of my career I’ve met many highly effective automaker CEOs and directors. Two stand out in my mind as particularly impressive: Ferdinand Piech and Martin Winterkorn. This week in DVN we look at these two VIPS and their actions toward the great success of VW. In context of the general malaise and difficulty dogging the European auto industry nowtimes, VW is succeeding due in large part to these two great managers. Many a CEO manages his or her company with a narrow, locked focus on financial results. Some car makers have frequently-replaced CEOs without extensive auto industry experience or passion. VW are managed by an engineer who has spent his entire career steeped in automotive culture, and I think a big part of the reason why VW does so well is that Winterkorn and Piech spend a lot of time and effort driving cars, visiting suppliers, always seeking new benchmarks, technologies, and techniques to define a vision for their company. Products and technologies are the main focus of their job. They are engineers first and foremost, and they maintain four top priorities: products, technologies, premium cars, and China
The result is there: in the first semester 2012, VW announced a positive result of €8.8 billion, while French car makers announced an operating loss. It’s interesting to look and see why, don’t you think?
Sincerely yours,
DVN Editor in Chief