VW AGM – calm after the storm – Süddeutsche.de

• In Hannover, the Volkswagen shareholders meeting, as every year, but nothing is as usual:. The Annual General Meeting will be led for the first time is a trade unionist and a meeting dominated by the three-week power struggle in the management team
• Especially CEO Winterkorn – who had emerged from the struggle for power with the consolidated patriarchs Piëch as the winner – looking pointedly in the future business
• A new staffing permanent solution to the top of the supervisory board does not yet exist.

By Thomas Fromm

conscientious preparation

He has been sitting a good half hour here alone behind his long light gray desk. Berthold Huber to lead the 55th Annual Meeting of the VW group at least ten clock, now it reads, speaks softly to himself, and from below you only see his head on the desk. It is an important date for him, perhaps even one of the most important in the life of 65-year-olds. He knows that, and he prepares to leave.

Since the resignation of the VW supervisory board chairman Ferdinand Piech, former IG Metall boss is such a thing as a transition chief inspector, and as later the Supervisory Board and Management Board take a seat, he sits next to chief executive Martin Winterkorn. It’s an interesting experiment. Huber, the union, one in ten workers’ representatives in the 20-member Supervisory Board, is now in the middle

For accounting purposes, it works its way through the standard points of his speech. Commemoration of the dead, salaries, personal. And he says that he derive this meeting as a proxy. Coincidentally so because another has gone

Volkswagen So now Berthold Huber

At Volkswagen, for the first time initiates labor leaders the AGM. Neither he nor the other interested parties should know exactly what to expect at the shareholder meeting in Hannover. Report

Applause for the still-Chief

A few things on our own behalf, praise for the predecessor Piëch, whose merits they would “or elsewhere” worthy. And that you will present a successor “in due time”. Then is the time for the presentation of the CEOs. As Huber is anmoderieren the chief speech, but it does happen, the error. Instead Winterkorn he wants to lead over to the shareholders. “I’m sorry, now I’m mixed up.”

Then Winterkorn goes to the microphone and giving his speech. “There have been in recent weeks, countless interpretations, speculations and exaggerations unfortunately you, our shareholders need to know:… Volkswagen is a very healthy, well-positioned company A company to which we can be proud” He laughs, gets applause.

Volkswagen trouble with the relationship

Ferdinand Piëch and his wife are on the supervisory board of Volkswagen of two nieces heir. Deposed Patriarch is not pleased about it.

“Moving Day” for VW

I’d had Piëch, Martin Winterkorn would now no longer there, if possible. But the old patriarch resigned in late April as the loser in the struggle for power in Germany’s largest industrial group. He himself had triggered the crisis of leadership by attempting disassembly Winterkorn. The works council, the state of Lower Saxony as an anchor shareholder and the major shareholders of the Porsche family had but stood by Winterkorn. Together keep the Porsche and Piëch families hold the majority of votes at VW. Together with the long-standing CEO and supervisory board chairman Piech was also his wife Ursula resigned as Supervisory Board member.

Your Forum Volkswagen: Has the power struggle the consolidated financial damage?

On the VW annual general meeting looks CEO Winterkorn especially in the future: “Volkswagen is a very healthy, well-positioned company.” The power struggle in the management team seems to forget normality shall enter into. But can this be done? your forum

“are behind us – more cautiously – moving day,” says Winterkorn, a CEO, who after three weeks power struggle is still there. The Group is now but “in calmer waters on the go”. Presidium and the Supervisory Board are going to resolve outstanding staffing issues quickly and optimally. A candidate to succeed Piëch could not present the Volkswagen management. They wanted to find a Piëch’s successor not rush, it is said of Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephen Weil, who represents the country in the Presidium of the Supervisory Board. Whether the Board has already decided a timetable for the search, he will not say.

Volkswagen With Piëch a social experiment

fails, the VW family is a beacon of hope who practices strong participation and the profit motive normal business does not know for many. But in fact, does not the balance of power. Comment

Winterkorn looking ahead

The focus will now return to the business, says Winterkorn , So he talks about the Group, about cars and strategies. So VW is taking its first steps towards a decentralization of its management. For this purpose, the Group bundles its heavy commercial vehicle business with the daughters MAN and Scania in a separate holding. The new holding company for the trucks and buses in the VW group receives its own supervisory board, in which the workers a strong voice to the consolidated model.

Volkswagen The protagonists in the VW power struggle

The decentralization of commercial vehicles could serve as a blueprint for other parts of the Group. From the new holding company, VW promises a “closer networking of brands, shorter decision-making processes and greater speed in the implementation”.

The battles in Management are now against the past. Piëch is no longer chairman of the board, first time in many years, he is not even present at the shareholders’ meeting. But somehow everyone knows here in the hall: The old Patriarch is expected to what happens at VW, look closely. Now more than ever.