Stuttgart For a long time, Barbara Frenkel never dreamed of ever joining the Porsche Executive Board. Now she is the first woman to have made this leap. “My career was not straightforward, and many twists and turns were unpredictable,” says the 58-year-old manager.
Born in Franconia, Hof first worked for suppliers in the region such as Helsa-Werke, later for Valeo and then at TRW, until 20 years ago she made the rather unusual leap from the supplier industry to sports car manufacturer Porsche. It was the heyday of Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking and thus still a downright men’s society in Zuffenhausen with business trips at the bar to end the day, preferably with a cigar and whiskey at the end.
Frenkel is a meticulous worker who prepares down to the last detail. She started at Porsche in quality management, then switched to sales, where she was most recently responsible for Europe. Since 2019, she has even sat on the supervisory board for the employees. However, she had to give up the mandate again with the board post.
She doesn’t feel like a quota woman. Because not only Porsche boss Oliver Blume had chosen her for the top job. “All six board colleagues told me that I was their preferred candidate,” explains the native of Hof, whose slightly rolling R reveals her origins.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
“In the east Czechoslovakia and in the north the GDR, there wasn’t so much going on,” Frenkel remembers when she was 18 years old. After the disco there was only the possibility to get something to eat in the bridge restaurant Frankenwald over the A9 near Rudolphstein. Shish kebab over the autobahn – that was the Saturday night thrill on the edge of the zone. That was long ago. But it shows that a grounded manager has come a very long way up here.
Today, Frenkel prefers to work in mixed teams
Often working alone among men didn’t bother her much. “I never felt it was a struggle,” she says, although nowadays she prefers to work in mixed teams. “It’s about bringing people together with different perspectives and experiences who also question the existing at one point or another. Diverse teams are innovative, ”she says. “If everyone has a similar socialization, there is less discussion.”
Frenkel is in charge of a purchasing budget of nine billion euros. As a rule, Porsche is more likely to be seen by suppliers. “You can tell whether a car manufacturer has a margin that doesn’t force them to squeeze the last cent out of every supplier,” says an industry expert. The relationship between automakers and suppliers has never been free of conflict. “In the event of liquidity bottlenecks, we look at how we can provide support, for example with a short-term extension of payment terms,” says Frenzel. Smaller suppliers of parts for internal combustion engines are particularly affected.
And it is precisely these that would be needed even longer than one might assume with the transformation to electromobility. But the Franconian is far from being a Mother Teresa, just because she worked in the supply industry for a long time. Around 4,000 suppliers are scanned using AI on the internet and social networks. The software finds information that indicates sustainability risks in procurement. “If there are any signs of possible violations, we hold intensive discussions with the supplier. It’s about improving the situation quickly, ”says Frenkel.
But it also works the other way round: The current chip shortage has been the focus of her work since her appointment in the summer. “We are given priority in the Group because of our earnings contribution,” says Frenkel, “but we cannot rest on that. We have to do our part in procurement. And that’s what we do. ”Friendly tone, but clear message.
Sourcing chips will remain difficult until the end of 2022. The aim must be to improve the structures for sourcing semiconductors in the future. When Corona broke out, the auto industry canceled the chip manufacturers’ orders. Now she has to queue up because others have occupied the capacity.
Self-taught manager
The new head of purchasing still has a difficult job ahead of her. Because it has to align the entire supply chain with sustainability, from the use of green electricity and the use of recycled materials to compliance with social production methods. “In the future, Porsche customers will be able to drive a car with a clear conscience,” is Frenkel’s mantra. “I have a passion for sustainability – long before I became the chief procurement officer. Sustainability is a matter close to my heart. ”Porsche wants to achieve carbon neutrality in 2030.
The self-taught manager, along with the new Volkswagen sales director Hildegard Wortmann, is one of the few women in the Wolfsburg-based group who have made the leap beyond the usual human resources department. She has always been happy at every point in her career, she says. But only until she was asked again to do something new. At Porsche, she least had to think twice. Frenkel first came into contact with the brand when she was sitting in her brother’s Porsche. He doesn’t drive himself anymore. But he’ll definitely be allowed to ride with his sister in the company car.
Frenkel has already revealed a tough savings proposal in a questionnaire. When asked what she could do without with a Porsche, she jokingly replied with a not entirely new gag: “the rear window wipers”. You need a bit of gasoline in your blood in the Porsche executive suite – or in the case of Frenkel, 800 volts, that’s the Taycan voltage.
More: Porsche boss is urgently looking for chip partners: “We will have to fight hard there”