There are car companies, as it simmers always slightly below the surface. Daimler for example. A CEO Dieter Zetsche as can never be sure whether a series of powerful leader who works or influential board members and veer oppose him. He has experienced this often enough.
And then there’s BMW, where everything always amazing, almost uncanny harmony expires, outwardly at least. And there are Volkswagen, a company with 600,000 employees in which there are neither harmony nor resistance. But only the will of a single individual:. The Board of chiefs and major shareholder Ferdinand Piëch
His word is law at Volkswagen. Or it was until now. Because suddenly meets the Omnipotent massive resistance.
He’ll go” at a distance “to CEO Martin Winterkorn, Piëch Friday afternoon had” explains Spiegel Online “. The news hit like a bomb. Finally, the two as very tight duo were, as guarantors of the VW success. No one in the group was Piëch closer than Winterkorn. It was thought, at least.
The concentration of power on two men in a globally active company with 118 locations, has so far been but also as one of the weak points of VW , But so closely Winterkorn and Piëch were apparently for months no more.
So now the break. Piëch wants Winterkorn no more than chairman of the board when his time is up at the top of the control panel. Ferdinand Piëch is 77 years old. And after such a statement was previously clear: This is the man against whom the attack is directed, sacked, burned for all items, as well as get out of the group
A power struggle. has broken
But now the unthinkable happens so far. Martin Winterkorn resists. A power struggle has erupted within the VW Group. And at a time when the start in Wolfsburg, Toyota to overtake the number one industry. Where there is a lot of fire in companies that need to delete it. Signs of a perhaps too überhastetes growth. The “Toyota syndrome”. The latter is probably the reason for the withdrawal of confidence by Piëch.
But Winterkorn has no intention to bow and go. Martin Winterkorn let themselves “not just from the farm to hunt,” it is now in its environment. There is “no reason for the attack” from Salzburg. There lives Piëch, from there, the VW group is actually controlled. Winterkorn was a successful CEO, he will fight for his position. These are new messages. And courageous. Because so far everyone has lost yet, which is arrayed against Piëch
But Winterkorn, the vote of no confidence must meet in person deeply, feels strongly for two reasons.: He has powerful allies. And he can produce convincing results. However due to his performance at VW, it would be difficult, it simply saw off.
Therefore, the reaction of Lower Saxony, after all, the second largest shareholder of Volkswagen surprised at Piëch not attack. Prime Minister Stephen Weil (SPD) was “unpleasantly surprised” about the statements of VW supervisory board, Ferdinand Piëch, said a spokeswoman for the State. Lower Saxony see the development of Volkswagen positive and maintain a trusting relationship with the CEO.
Because it is not just applicable in Wolfsburg as a power factor, and he is not one to regularly intervenes in the affairs of the Group. But he must not also. Lower Saxony is an anchor shareholder of the Group, the most important after the family Piëch and Porsche. Without the land VW might not withstand the hostile takeover by Porsche so successful.
Piëch meets united resistance
And because not feel Piëch and Porsche’s connected to, a family, mostly scattered living in Austria and southern Germany. His interest is that VW is going well, the car maker relies on Lower Saxony as a production location that jobs are not relocated, but remain in the country. The guarantor of this is in the eyes of Lower Saxony Winterkorn rather than Piëch.
Before Because council boss Bernd Osterloh already had demonstratively behind Winterkorn. To him it is all about the preservation of jobs, and he had never had problems with winter grain. So Osterloh said immediately if there going to workers, Winterkorn’s contract beyond 2016 will be extended.
Osterloh responded almost tempted to push Piëch. He did not want a staff discussion, he sent a message. “We advocate that we now turn back to the company and its 600,000 employees and continue to work on success, instead of leading debates, the only newspaper pages to fill,” he growled.
with the works it would “now no further discussion about people and functions return,” said the council chairman, who is also a member of the powerful Bureau of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen.
This makes Piëch a new experience for him: He meets united resistance. With Winterkorn, Osterloh and because he has in addition to the family of three centers of power in the company is currently against him. And apparently also the family is not unanimous. “The Porsche family was not informed of the statements made by Ferdinand Piëch,” it says in Stuttgart. That is, Piëch’s attack was a single-handedly, which should not necessarily be supported around the Porsches.
Winterkorn’s power was only borrowed
Has Piëch thus spans the first time the bow? “Whether a CEO goes or stays, the Supervisory Board decides, no one else,” says a VW executive. In strictly legal terms, a majority of eleven of the 20 votes in the Supervisory Board would be required to deposit Winterkorn. Although Piëch could make use of his double voting rights as chairman. But that would only be effective if he could pull the family and the country on his side.
The state of Lower Saxony has turned against Piëch. So there must be an agreement within her family, can live as the second largest shareholder of the council as a central factor of power the country. This will be the in the next few months – whether Winterkorn really stays longer unnerved or throw in the towel. There are probably a long, agonizing months until the power issue is resolved.
Currently, the powerful ally still winter grain spirit of resistance increase. But how he should proceed unless accompanied by the most influential man in the group of no confidence? In early May sit the grandees on the stage of the Annual General Meeting in Hanover, every gesture, shareholders pursue there and evaluate
And then the internal battle. Location: All, the foreseeable want all the way forward at Volkswagen, must be brought into position as manager of the successful Skoda CEO Winfried Vahland about. Winterkorn is recognized in the car Reich, an accomplished professional and successful manager. But his power was always just borrowed -. They came from Piëch
Wilko, as they call it internally, whose error has ironed out and the reasons given by Piëch Purchased together brands such as Seat and Skoda made only technically and economically a whole. But Winterkorn was never the visionary in this role Piëch seems irreplaceable, he is dictating the direction and acts as a shrewd tactician. Piëch brings new lines on a blank sheet of paper, has someone once described it, Winterkorn, she perfected. This has made the unlikely team of technicians for decades so successful.
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