Volkswagen (VW) is entering a new era. After the spectacular departure of Herbert Diess, thanked this summer to everyone’s surprise, after four years at the head of the group, it is Oliver Blume, hitherto boss of Porsche, who was to take the reins, Thursday 1er September, from the German manufacturer, former world number one and the country’s leading company.
This 54-year-old leader will have the delicate task of completing his predecessor’s project: successfully completing the biggest transformation ever carried out by the automotive giant of 670,000 employees, by making the former king of diesel a technological group, at the cutting edge on the consumer electric vehicle. All this, while respecting the subtle balances of a unique governance of its kind, stemming from the post-war period: a supervisory board made up of a family heiress from the Land of Lower Saxony (north-west) and especially from the Betriebsrat (“Works Council”), the essential employee representative body, dominated by the IG Metall union.
“I look forward to the future collaboration with Mr. Blume. He is the leader we need in the current circumstances.”says Daniela Cavallo, President of the Betriebsrat since a year. A way not to dwell on the ruthless confrontation which opposed him to Herbert Diess for months, and his probable role in the ousting of the latter. “There were of course differences, she notes soberly. But we owe respect to Mr. Diess for the strategy he put in place after the “dieselgate”. Thanks to him, Volkswagen learned the lessons of this crisis and clearly began its transition to electric. »
Transition to all-electric
We couldn’t better smooth out the unlikely conflicts that have plagued the group in recent years. On several occasions, Mr. Diess’s public provocations vis-à-vis employee representatives and co-management rules almost cost him his job. In addition to his eulogies about the American competitor Tesla, he was able to let go in public that he was thinking of cutting 30,000 jobs all at once.
Volkswagen launched the construction of a battery factory in Salzgitter (Lower Saxony) in July, the first of a series of six, spread across Europe
However, it was because of his results, and not his odds, that Mr. Diess ended up falling this summer, abandoned by his last supporters within the shareholder family. Contrary to what his all-out communication on social networks claimed, the results of his transformation of VW are less brilliant than he wanted to admit.
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