I saw new people laughing and not seeing the old people crying after the public "drainage door" storm

On June 18th, the arrest of Audi CEO Rupert Steader set a record for the highest level of executives who have been detained by the Volkswagen Group for suspected fraud in the emissions test. At the same time, it also triggered the “turbulence” of the personnel of the Volkswagen Group.

♦ Dess has been facing many reforms within the public for more than 100 days.

Volkswagen Group CEO

This week, Herbert Diess, the new CEO of the Volkswagen Group, has been in office for a hundred days, during which time he has actively carried out large-scale adjustments to the management structure and organizational structure of the group. Although the core strategic direction of the automaker remains unchanged, these moves have earned him praise from many insiders.
On April 13 this year, the Volkswagen Board of Directors made a personnel change, appointing the 59-year-old Austrian Des to replace Matthias Mueller as the group's CEO. Diss joined the Volkswagen Group in 2015 and became the head of the Volkswagen brand, and he is still the head of the brand. After taking office, he told investors at the Volkswagen Group that he would transform the group from a “cuddly supertanker to a powerful speedboat”. Diss divides the 12 brands under the group into three major brand groups for management, with the aim of decentralizing management's powers and responsibilities and improving efficiency.
Nord LB analyst Frank Schwope said: "We have noticed that the purpose of Diss is to make the group more manageable by reforming non-core projects. However, this is not all his own ideas - some have been developed long time ago. Good strategy. But Diss received a lot of praise."
Although this hundred days of Diss seems to be infinite, he still faces a big problem, that is, how to deal with the "strong" mass union, which is of great significance to his future development.
German union investment fund manager and corporate governance expert said that Diss must adopt a stronger strategy when implementing a policy that is not welcomed by employees but is necessary for the company's development, because the public labor organization is better than other German car companies. The status is still high.
Union fund manager Ingo Speich said: "It is worth noting that Des and Mullen are very different in their communication with the outside or inside the group. Especially the attitude towards the union. But we also welcome strict management. In the past, our feeling was that workers dominated strategic decisions and sometimes they were too dominant."

♦ This was originally Muller’s 2025 Strategy.

Former CEO of Volkswagen Group Muller

A German auto industry expert who asked not to be named said that people's expectations and evaluations of Diss are too high. In fact, many of his decisions are the same as Mullen. He added: "I am not sure what he was hired for."

In fact, this hundred days of Diss is really just continuing to implement the 2025 strategy proposed by Mullen two years ago. Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Automotive Research Center at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, said: "Overall, it is good that Diss inherited the strategic direction that Mullen proposed. Most importantly, he has accelerated this strategy. Implementation speed."

In addition to the portfolio of securities sponsored by Mullen, the strategy includes a realignment of the internal organization of Volkswagen, the promotion of cooperation with the mobile service platform and the full electrification of 300 models in the next decade.

Although Mullen set three records in terms of sales, revenue and operating profit in his last year as CEO, he was often considered by the outside world to be a “transitioner” chosen by the public after the 2015 diesel door incident. Many people think that Diss is a better choice because his resume is very "clean" in the Volkswagen Group executives. After all, two months before the "Drainage Door" scandal broke out, he officially entered the management system of the Volkswagen Group. .

When Volkswagen announced that Diss would replace Mullen as CEO, the group's share price closed up nearly 5%. Analysts and investors pin their hopes on Des because he is a famous "cost killer": in the 2008 financial crisis, he helped BMW survive the crisis by compressing supply costs of more than 4 billion euros. Investors believe that only real outsiders like Diss can apply more professional standards to the already bureaucratic group of management.

In the future, whether Diss will make more radical reforms to the group, or just continue to implement his predecessor, Mullen’s "2025 Strategy," we don't know yet.

♦ Exposing Volkswagen to dig BMW purchasing director as Audi CEO

BMW Purchasing Director Marcus Dussman

Recently, a number of foreign media reported that Volkswagen Group is working to make BMW Purchasing Director Markus Duesmann the CEO of Audi.

According to sources in the European Automotive Weekly, a related publication of Automotive News Europe, Dussman will be the CEO of Audi on January 1 next year.

Dussman is an engine development expert. He will be the second high-profile player from BMW to the Volkswagen Group after Dessie left BMW in 2015 and became the CEO of Volkswagen.

On July 24, local time, the Volkswagen Group said in a statement that Dusman, 49, will become a member of the management board and will assume his new position “when he is competent”.

Volkswagen did not know what Dussman’s new position was, but according to the German newspaper Business Daily, the public hoped that Dussmann could take over the role of CEO of Audi.

The exact time for Dussman to leave BMW is not yet determined, as his contract will expire in the fall of 2019, and the contract also includes a clause prohibiting him from joining the competition immediately.

Audi is the third largest luxury brand in the world. In recent years, it has lost to rival BMW and Mercedes-Benz brands. The Volkswagen Group needs to appoint a new CEO in Audi to achieve its maximum profit contribution.

Dussmann joined BMW from Mercedes-Benz in 2007 when he was the head of the Formula 1 (F1) power system. He became the head of BMW purchasing in 2016, and this position was previously held by Diss.

With the employment of Dussman, Diss is promoting the reform of the management of the Volkswagen Group. In order to speed up decision making and make the German giant more flexible, this initiative involves hiring more external executives in a company that has been dominated by local managers for many years.

Some analysts also pointed out that the negative impact of the “emission gate” incident on the Volkswagen Group has not completely dissipated so far. The public wants to comprehensively reform. The first thing to do is to manage the top-down shuffling of the management, especially to wash away those who used to Manager at the company scandal center. Therefore, Dussman's appointment is extremely important for Audi, the most profitable brand of the Volkswagen Group.

♦ Stade’s Appeals Group forced him to step down to be the biggest injury to him.

Former CEO of Audi Stead

On June 18th, Audi CEO Rupert Stead was formally arrested by the Munich prosecutor for trying to conceal evidence related to the diesel emissions investigation.

The arrest of Stade was very sudden for Stead and the Volkswagen Group. Volkswagen and Audi have said that unless there is other proof, Stade will be considered innocent. At the same time, two days after Steed was arrested, Audi appointed Bram Schot, its sales director, as interim CEO. But Scott is not considered to be a long-term leader in Audi because he lacks engineering background.

According to a Reuters report on July 19, the German prosecutor's office in Munich said on the 19th that former Audi CEO Steader appealed to the court one month after he was imprisoned, requesting that he be released from prison.

The Office of the Ombudsman stated that Stade was actively working with the prosecutor at the beginning of his imprisonment but has now refused to respond.

A few days later, Hiltrud Werner, who is responsible for integrity and legal affairs at the Volkswagen Group, said that Stead should not lose his position in Audi after being arrested for the exhaust gas scandal because it is the biggest damage to him.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Werner said: "I can only speak for myself. If someone is subjected to this humiliation, I don't think it is necessary for the Supervisory Board to further humiliate him. Even though Stead himself has been in the past two years. The resignation request was submitted."

Werner said that the German prosecution has not yet filed a complaint against Stade and has not submitted any evidence of misconduct.