Dusseldorf, Wolfsburg Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess surprisingly leaves the Wolfsburg car manufacturer. The 63-year-old had agreed with the supervisory board to leave at the end of August, the VW group announced on Friday evening after a supervisory board meeting. His successor will be Porsche CEO Oliver Blume. The 54-year-old is to lead the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer and the VW Group in future in a personal union.
This is the end for Herbert Diess after seven years with the Wolfsburg group. He has headed the group since April 2018, having previously headed the core Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand.
With the change in management, the supervisory board is drawing the conclusions from years of quarrels about Herbert Diess. The manager was on the verge of being thrown out several times, most recently at the beginning of December last year. At that time, he drew the ire of the employees when he suggested cutting 30,000 jobs at the headquarters in Wolfsburg.
In the past, the Porsche-Piëch family who owned the company had always stood by Diess and made sure that he was able to keep the board position. “But now the initiative to throw the family out has come,” it said in the evening from corporate circles. The main reason for this was the dispute over the direction of the software subsidiary Cariad. “That was the last push,” it said in Wolfsburg.
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After the change at the top of VW became known, the group’s shares initially fell by a good two percent, but then stabilized again.
Recognition and criticism for VW boss Herbert Diess
The VW supervisory board made its decision shortly before the Wolfsburg factory vacation, which begins on Monday. After that, the 63-year-old Herbert Diess will not return to his chief post at the group’s headquarters. Officially, Oliver Blume is scheduled to take over as CEO in Wolfsburg on September 1st.
Will officially take over the management of the Volkswagen Group on September 1, 2022.
(Photo: Reuters)
Blume also wants to lead Porsche in the long term. The Porsche team can rely on that, said Blume, according to a statement on Friday evening. This also applies after a possible IPO. “We have successfully positioned Porsche technologically, economically and culturally,” said Blume. He is very happy to lead Porsche AG and the Volkswagen Group together.
The entire Supervisory Board recognizes that Diess has put the VW Group on the path towards transformation with electromobility. “Herbert Diess has impressively demonstrated the speed and consistency with which he can implement far-reaching transformation processes. In doing so, he not only steered the company through extremely difficult waters, but also fundamentally realigned it strategically,” said the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Hans Dieter Pötsch.
“Herbert Diess has strategically aligned the Volkswagen Group with electromobility. It is thanks to him that the Volkswagen Group is in a strong position for further transformation,” added family spokespersons Wolfgang Porsche and Hans Michel Piëch.
In truth, it is a straight sacking, so that the group is able to work again. VW Insider
The employee side said goodbye to the CEO with critical words: “We not only have to transform our products and business models, but also our workforce. Our focus as an employee side is clear: all colleagues must be involved. Today’s decisions contribute to this,” said Daniela Cavallo, Chairwoman of the Works Council.
>> Read also: Herbert Diess is fighting for his job
A clear indication of Herbert Diess’ management style. He had recently been repeatedly accused of preferring to go it alone and acting past the team. This had increasingly caused irritation, especially in top management and on the board. “There was hardly any basis left for proper cooperation,” said an insider.
That is why there can be no talk of an amicable separation with Herbert Diess. “In truth, it’s a clean sack so that the group can work again,” says the insider. Volkswagen needs a CEO who will be taken seriously by its executives again and with whom there will be real cooperation.
Diess successor Oliver Blume is considered to be a very good team player
In contrast, Oliver Blume is considered to be a very good team player. “Blume should also continue to drive the transformation forward with the entire Executive Board – with a leadership culture that focuses on team spirit,” wrote the group in its official announcement on the change in management.
The supervisory board also said that there was a certain urgency to make the group fully operational again. That is why the control committee made the decision to implement the change immediately and despite the planned IPO of the sports car subsidiary Porsche.
Investors don’t necessarily see it positively if Oliver Blume, the CEO of the stock market candidate, were replaced at such short notice because of the move to Wolfsburg. “The CEO should stay 18 months after an IPO,” says Daniel Röska, automotive analyst at US investment firm Bernstein.
Volkswagen and Porsche want to solve this problem by having Oliver Blume remain at the helm of the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer after moving to the group. Due to a possible work overload, Blume is also to be assigned a Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Volkswagen. CFO Arno Antlitz will also take on this post, making him the second strong man on the group board alongside Blume.
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