Piech firmly behind the wheel at VW and Porsche (Porche CEO Wiedeking forced out)
07-17-09, 07:02 PM
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Piech firmly behind the wheel at VW and Porsche (Porche CEO Wiedeking forced out)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Porsche Automobil Holding SE Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking is expected to relinquish "operational control" of the German car maker in a reversal of its attempt to take over Volkswagen AG, according to a report published late Friday.
The online edition of The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported that Weideking's stepping aside would open the way for VW to assert more control over Porsche's /quotes/comstock/11i!poahf (POAHF 73.00, 0.00, 0.00%) car-making arm, "and could end a more than three-year battle between the two German auto companies that are linked by family stakeholders."
According to a compromise under consideration, Weideking would retain his CEO title at Porsche's holding company, the report said, while noting that Porsche has repeatedly denied that Wiedeking is on his way out.
Porsche and VW /quotes/comstock/11i!vlkay (VLKA.Y 70.45, -1.31, -1.83%) are nearing a deal that would hand VW a 49% stake in Porsche's core auto business, according to the report.
Porsche has been raising its own shareholding in VW since 2005, reaching nearly 51% with a set of options to buy a further 20% stake, according to the report. However, Porsche's net debt has reached "unsustainable" levels more recently thanks to the global economic downturn.
The online edition of The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported that Weideking's stepping aside would open the way for VW to assert more control over Porsche's /quotes/comstock/11i!poahf (POAHF 73.00, 0.00, 0.00%) car-making arm, "and could end a more than three-year battle between the two German auto companies that are linked by family stakeholders."
According to a compromise under consideration, Weideking would retain his CEO title at Porsche's holding company, the report said, while noting that Porsche has repeatedly denied that Wiedeking is on his way out.
Porsche and VW /quotes/comstock/11i!vlkay (VLKA.Y 70.45, -1.31, -1.83%) are nearing a deal that would hand VW a 49% stake in Porsche's core auto business, according to the report.
Porsche has been raising its own shareholding in VW since 2005, reaching nearly 51% with a set of options to buy a further 20% stake, according to the report. However, Porsche's net debt has reached "unsustainable" levels more recently thanks to the global economic downturn.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/por...in-vw-deal-wsj
Personally, I feel like VW dodged a bullet here. Cars like the Veyron, Phaeton, W8 engines, basically all the engineering exercises embarked upon by Mr. Pierch would have never been allowed under Porsche CEO Wiedeking who only obsessed over efficiency. Oh, and 1SICk, I told you never to underestimate Mr. Pierch!
07-17-09, 07:17 PM
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Mr. Pierch is an old egotistical maniac (Though an engineering genius)...Wendelin's numbers and track record speaks for itself and he had support from both sides.....Very sad how this battle of egos played out.
WW could not anticipate the market folding...some say Porsche really is a hedge fund that happens to sell cars!!
THis story has been interesting to say the least...
WW could not anticipate the market folding...some say Porsche really is a hedge fund that happens to sell cars!!
THis story has been interesting to say the least...
07-21-09, 08:05 PM
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Mr. Pierch is an old egotistical maniac (Though an engineering genius)...Wendelin's numbers and track record speaks for itself and he had support from both sides.....Very sad how this battle of egos played out.
WW could not anticipate the market folding...some say Porsche really is a hedge fund that happens to sell cars!!
WW could not anticipate the market folding...some say Porsche really is a hedge fund that happens to sell cars!!
Pierch is the winner, Wendelin Wiedeking is the big looser (after seeing his ballpark severance packages, maybe not). The deal will go through, Porsche's crying about a small tax hurdle non withstanding.
07-23-09, 12:45 AM
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Well, it is starting to all become official. Early this morning in Stuttgart, Porsche announced that both CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and CFO Holger Härter, the two men responsible for the failed takeover of VW AG, would immediately step down from their positions and leave the company. Pierch is in control, the soap opera ends, and Wiedeking is not so suprisingly the huge looser.
Last edited by FKL; 07-23-09 at 12:50 AM.
07-23-09, 04:40 PM
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I've done a lot of reading on Wendelin Wiedeking and I've used him in many examples of how to run a company, ANY company. While his gamble in the last years using Porsche as a hedge fund led to his demise WITHOUT HIM, Porsche would have been done in the 1990s or bought by someone else.
His leadership and vision and his efforts to make workers and customers happy led to happy stock owners, a board and elevated Porsche to places they could never have dreamed. He played his chips PERFECTLY as the economy picked up and was running full steam ahead during his tenure. From the Boxster/911 sharing to the Tourag/Cayenne to the CGT (
) to selling GT2/3/RS cars and bringing them here what a record!!Porsche also was fully supported in motorsport during his tenure, he understood how vital racing and winning= image/sales.
Pierch simply didn't like the fact he was the highest paid (and worth it) was so admired and wanted control again and wanted the spotlight. He didn't like the fact if Wendelin was in control, the Veyron and other money losing projects would be canned.
As a Porsche enthusiast I am saddened to see him go and wish him the best success of retirement.
I wonder if he is the first European businessman of the year to be forced to quit the same year he won the award!
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/26/news...es_fortuneintl
A man of the people
Wiedeking likes to think of himself as a man of the people - he regularly walks through the assembly line at the Stuttgart factory and tools around potato fields near his home in a vintage Porsche tractor. That folksy image has been tarnished recently by disclosures about his salary: Last year he made $100 million, sparking an outcry in Germany. He's unapologetic, saying he earned it.
A mechanical engineer by training, he's obsessed with detail and loves poring over technicalities in search of perfection. After sitting down with Fortune in his Stuttgart office, located in a brick building next to the factory where the 911 is produced, he rushes off to inspect a new corporate museum that Porsche is about to open. He quickly spots a sloping ceiling with a water sprinkler low enough to be tampered with by visitors, and orders the sprinkler moved.
Such attention to detail is an important part of Wiedeking's management style, as is his willingness to seek dissenting opinions. Indeed, he encourages his managers to air their disagreements in full, so that he can make well-informed decisions. When it comes to pricing new models, for example, he doesn't want to hear just the suggestions of his sales executives. So he regularly charges his strategic planning team to come up with their own proposals - and then lets the two sides slug it out. "I provoke internal discussions,". "I want managers to put forward their position, to fight for decisions. Sometimes he saysthere's a bust-up, not just between me and them but with one another."
That blunt, confrontational style was a critical element in saving Porsche during the last serious downturn. Wiedeking joined the automaker fresh out of engineering school in 1983 as an assistant to the head of production. He left five years later to work at a supplier but returned in 1991 as production head and was made CEO in September 1992. At the time Porsche was sliding into a life-threatening crisis. It had boomed in the mid-1980s on the back of buoyant demand from America, which then accounted for about two-thirds of sales. But as the U.S. economy hit the skids, Porsche car sales dropped 80%, and its losses piled up.
It wasn't just the demise of a key market that was painful; Porsche was also hampered by antiquated production methods. Some 20% of its parts were delivered three or more days too late, for example. ure would save the company. He flew in teams of the same Japanese consultants who had helped Toyota and gave them free rein. "A culturWiedeking, who had been deeply impressed by what he'd seen on visits to Japanese auto firms, believed that only a radical, "lean manufacturing" cal revolution from top to bottom" is the way he describes what happened next, as the consultants organized the workforce into teams and one by one eliminated poor practices. Wiedeking made one now-fabled appearance on the assembly line wielding a circular saw, which he used to cut down the roof-high racks of spare parts that towered over the production line.
Porsche quickly became an exemplary proponent of "just-in-time, just-in-sequence" manufacturing, and its fortunes revived. But Wiedeking's revolution wasn't over yet. His next moves, focusing on new models, consisted of outsourcing the expensive parts of the manufacturing process as a way of keeping overhead low and boosting Porsche's profit margins.
http://www.thelocal.de/money/20090723-20775.html
07-23-09, 10:58 PM
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I wonder if he is the first European businessman of the year to be forced to quit the same year he won the award!
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/26/news...es_fortuneintl
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/26/news...es_fortuneintl
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07-24-09, 03:25 AM
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1SICK, just because he took advice from Toyota doesn't make him god, this is what you are basically saying. Wiedeking was churning out maybe a hundred thousand cars a year, VW Group sells more than sixty times as many cars in a given year, these are vastly different games. To imply that VW should completely forget their core values and focus on honestly a path that even Toyota has acknolwedged has failed (unpassionate blandness) doesn't make much sense. There is more than "efficiency" in a global automaket where quality is quickly becoming an equal playing field.
However negatively you think about Piech, he sucesfully moved both VW and Audi upmarket over last decade, saved the company from the brink in N. America by green-lighting the unpopular New Beetle, and built a premium automotive empire by giving Lamborghini to Audi, and gobbling up Bentley. Obviously your continued implications of the Veyron being an "unprofitable endeavor that nobody wanted" don't seem to hold much weight when one looks at the current posture of company relative to its peers, much less the intangible monetarial benefits it gave to the Buggati brand and VW on a whole (The RR, Maybach aren't profitable, btw). Pierch has always been out to build an image for the VW Group as more than just a car company, but a premium empire. With Audi, Bentley, Buggati, Lamborghini and now Porsche under his worldclass reporte, he has undoubtedly succeeded. I'll expect the regular talking points of "vw selling small cars" to come up, but these economies of scale are at the very core to enabling the VW Group's manufacturing and engineering dominance. You need to give respect where it's due, and what Pierch has done is beyond any turnaround Wiedeking gave Porsche in 1993.
And not exactly sure what those pictures mean, besides Porsche being incorporated as the 10th brand, so yeah, I guess that's kinda like humping and including the brand, but if we are being honest, VW is going to give them the same autonomy that Audi and every others subsidiary has under the umbrella. And as we know, Piech loves to promote internal competition between the sides, even creating anamosity between engineering teams, which in the end ultimately can only lead to better products. Wiedeking? Well, he was more "traditional" (unless it came to delusional ideas like trying to leverage the entire company to grow his ego bigger).
Again, for a man that single handedly drove Porsche €9 Billion in debt and ultimately cost it its historic cherished independence, how can you expect him to not be fired? He failed big time, and he is gone. End of story.
However negatively you think about Piech, he sucesfully moved both VW and Audi upmarket over last decade, saved the company from the brink in N. America by green-lighting the unpopular New Beetle, and built a premium automotive empire by giving Lamborghini to Audi, and gobbling up Bentley. Obviously your continued implications of the Veyron being an "unprofitable endeavor that nobody wanted" don't seem to hold much weight when one looks at the current posture of company relative to its peers, much less the intangible monetarial benefits it gave to the Buggati brand and VW on a whole (The RR, Maybach aren't profitable, btw). Pierch has always been out to build an image for the VW Group as more than just a car company, but a premium empire. With Audi, Bentley, Buggati, Lamborghini and now Porsche under his worldclass reporte, he has undoubtedly succeeded. I'll expect the regular talking points of "vw selling small cars" to come up, but these economies of scale are at the very core to enabling the VW Group's manufacturing and engineering dominance. You need to give respect where it's due, and what Pierch has done is beyond any turnaround Wiedeking gave Porsche in 1993.
And not exactly sure what those pictures mean, besides Porsche being incorporated as the 10th brand, so yeah, I guess that's kinda like humping and including the brand, but if we are being honest, VW is going to give them the same autonomy that Audi and every others subsidiary has under the umbrella. And as we know, Piech loves to promote internal competition between the sides, even creating anamosity between engineering teams, which in the end ultimately can only lead to better products. Wiedeking? Well, he was more "traditional" (unless it came to delusional ideas like trying to leverage the entire company to grow his ego bigger).
Again, for a man that single handedly drove Porsche €9 Billion in debt and ultimately cost it its historic cherished independence, how can you expect him to not be fired? He failed big time, and he is gone. End of story.
Last edited by FKL; 07-24-09 at 03:33 AM.
07-24-09, 09:02 AM
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1SICK, just because he took advice from Toyota doesn't make him god, this is what you are basically saying. Wiedeking was churning out maybe a hundred thousand cars a year, VW Group sells more than sixty times as many cars in a given year, these are vastly different games. To imply that VW should completely forget their core values and focus on honestly a path that even Toyota has acknolwedged has failed (unpassionate blandness) doesn't make much sense. There is more than "efficiency" in a global automaket where quality is quickly becoming an equal playing field.
However negatively you think about Piech, he sucesfully moved both VW and Audi upmarket over last decade, saved the company from the brink in N. America by green-lighting the unpopular New Beetle, and built a premium automotive empire by giving Lamborghini to Audi, and gobbling up Bentley. Obviously your continued implications of the Veyron being an "unprofitable endeavor that nobody wanted" don't seem to hold much weight when one looks at the current posture of company relative to its peers, much less the intangible monetarial benefits it gave to the Buggati brand and VW on a whole (The RR, Maybach aren't profitable, btw). Pierch has always been out to build an image for the VW Group as more than just a car company, but a premium empire. With Audi, Bentley, Buggati, Lamborghini and now Porsche under his worldclass reporte, he has undoubtedly succeeded. I'll expect the regular talking points of "vw selling small cars" to come up, but these economies of scale are at the very core to enabling the VW Group's manufacturing and engineering dominance. You need to give respect where it's due, and what Pierch has done is beyond any turnaround Wiedeking gave Porsche in 1993.
And not exactly sure what those pictures mean, besides Porsche being incorporated as the 10th brand, so yeah, I guess that's kinda like humping and including the brand, but if we are being honest, VW is going to give them the same autonomy that Audi and every others subsidiary has under the umbrella. And as we know, Piech loves to promote internal competition between the sides, even creating anamosity between engineering teams, which in the end ultimately can only lead to better products. Wiedeking? Well, he was more "traditional" (unless it came to delusional ideas like trying to leverage the entire company to grow his ego bigger).
Again, for a man that single handedly drove Porsche €9 Billion in debt and ultimately cost it its historic cherished independence, how can you expect him to not be fired? He failed big time, and he is gone. End of story.
However negatively you think about Piech, he sucesfully moved both VW and Audi upmarket over last decade, saved the company from the brink in N. America by green-lighting the unpopular New Beetle, and built a premium automotive empire by giving Lamborghini to Audi, and gobbling up Bentley. Obviously your continued implications of the Veyron being an "unprofitable endeavor that nobody wanted" don't seem to hold much weight when one looks at the current posture of company relative to its peers, much less the intangible monetarial benefits it gave to the Buggati brand and VW on a whole (The RR, Maybach aren't profitable, btw). Pierch has always been out to build an image for the VW Group as more than just a car company, but a premium empire. With Audi, Bentley, Buggati, Lamborghini and now Porsche under his worldclass reporte, he has undoubtedly succeeded. I'll expect the regular talking points of "vw selling small cars" to come up, but these economies of scale are at the very core to enabling the VW Group's manufacturing and engineering dominance. You need to give respect where it's due, and what Pierch has done is beyond any turnaround Wiedeking gave Porsche in 1993.
And not exactly sure what those pictures mean, besides Porsche being incorporated as the 10th brand, so yeah, I guess that's kinda like humping and including the brand, but if we are being honest, VW is going to give them the same autonomy that Audi and every others subsidiary has under the umbrella. And as we know, Piech loves to promote internal competition between the sides, even creating anamosity between engineering teams, which in the end ultimately can only lead to better products. Wiedeking? Well, he was more "traditional" (unless it came to delusional ideas like trying to leverage the entire company to grow his ego bigger).
Again, for a man that single handedly drove Porsche €9 Billion in debt and ultimately cost it its historic cherished independence, how can you expect him to not be fired? He failed big time, and he is gone. End of story.
That is only part of why I like him but not even close to the main reason. Spare me your flame baiting conclusions.
Its clear VW can do no wrong in your eyes, period. They can do NOTHING wrong. Thats a bad way to see things. I am not taking anything away from Pierch but he is an egotistical maniac who couldn't bear to not have control and may have hurt these brands in the long run so he can stay in control.
With VW controlling Porsche, the golden age of Porsche might be now. Porsche fought HARD to fight off its sharing with VW parts and image. Now VW owns Porsche again. VW to most all people means cheap car and for Porsche to be owned by them makes owners heads hurt (from what I've read).
Now somehow you attack Toyota? Get this through your skull VW is nothing more than the European Toyota. PERIOD END OF STORY. They are one and the same. What does Toyota bashing have to do in here I have no idea. 70% of VWs cars sold are ECONO BOXES, the highest of ANY carmaker.
Your fanboism is blinding you to facts. The ONLY reason Porsche is in debt if B/C IT BOUGHT VW STOCK/SHARES which have dropped in value as they took 51% ownership and took on their debt. Until they bought VW, Porsche was THE MOST PROFITABLE COMPANY.
Wiedeking knew economies of scale would hurt Porsche so he tried to buy VW. Sadly the market turned to crap and it backfired.
THe man should be revered for what he did to Porsche. His one big gamble at the end hurt him. In my eyes his legacy is how Porsche even managed to get to this point.
Little ole Porsche owns 51% of VW lol!!! They almost got 75% ownership! Lil ole Porsche.
Last edited by LexFather; 07-24-09 at 09:08 AM.
07-24-09, 02:04 PM
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Why are you getting so angry. I already know all of your talking points on this and it's obvious the conclusions you are trying to push between the lines. I gave a thoughtful reply, you seem incapable without getting hot and heavy, using caps, bolds, and then using the "fanboy" label. Come on already.
Some of the things you say "VW being known for cheap cars" doesn't seem to make sense, given the brands VW owns and the products it churns out, aka, premium small cars, but you refuse to give any justification for this beyond some percentage you read somewhere online (and never confirmed, btw) of vehicle sales (average selling price would be mildly relevant). I'll expect you to post a picture of a small VW or Skoda and then say "aha", but haven't we arleady established this type of conjecture is very far from being intellectually honest? Then you go on with your favorite talking point which is again detached from reality (volkswagen and Toyota being the same simply because they are so close in size). Please, why the grand generalizations and blanket "end of the story" remarks that aren't even substantiated or reasonable? Let's have a debate on this without trying to win every single battle.
Some of the things you say "VW being known for cheap cars" doesn't seem to make sense, given the brands VW owns and the products it churns out, aka, premium small cars, but you refuse to give any justification for this beyond some percentage you read somewhere online (and never confirmed, btw) of vehicle sales (average selling price would be mildly relevant). I'll expect you to post a picture of a small VW or Skoda and then say "aha", but haven't we arleady established this type of conjecture is very far from being intellectually honest? Then you go on with your favorite talking point which is again detached from reality (volkswagen and Toyota being the same simply because they are so close in size). Please, why the grand generalizations and blanket "end of the story" remarks that aren't even substantiated or reasonable? Let's have a debate on this without trying to win every single battle.
Last edited by FKL; 07-24-09 at 02:10 PM.
07-24-09, 02:22 PM
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Why are you getting so angry. I already know all of your talking points on this and it's obvious the conclusions you are trying to push between the lines. I gave a thoughtful reply, you seem incapable without getting hot and heavy, using caps, bolds, and then using the "fanboy" label. Come on already.
Some of the things you say "VW being known for cheap cars" doesn't seem to make sense, given the brands VW owns and the products it churns out, aka, premium small cars, but you refuse to give any justification for this beyond some percentage you read somewhere online (and never confirmed, btw) of vehicle sales (average selling price would be mildly relevant). I'll expect you to post a picture of a small VW or Skoda and then say "aha", but haven't we arleady established this type of conjecture is very far from being intellectually honest? Then you go on with your favorite talking point which is again detached from reality (volkswagen and Toyota being the same simply because they are so close in size). Please, why the grand generalizations and blanket "end of the story" remarks that aren't even substantiated or reasonable? Let's have a debate on this without trying to win every single battle.
Some of the things you say "VW being known for cheap cars" doesn't seem to make sense, given the brands VW owns and the products it churns out, aka, premium small cars, but you refuse to give any justification for this beyond some percentage you read somewhere online (and never confirmed, btw) of vehicle sales (average selling price would be mildly relevant). I'll expect you to post a picture of a small VW or Skoda and then say "aha", but haven't we arleady established this type of conjecture is very far from being intellectually honest? Then you go on with your favorite talking point which is again detached from reality (volkswagen and Toyota being the same simply because they are so close in size). Please, why the grand generalizations and blanket "end of the story" remarks that aren't even substantiated or reasonable? Let's have a debate on this without trying to win every single battle.
My post had nothing to do with you and your feelings. I respect the Porsche CEO a great deal. I've read on him, researched him and admire him.
I'm sorry if you are upset I prefer Wendelin in charge.
VW is known for cheap cars here and worldwide, deal with it. When you think VW, you don't think Toureg. You think Beetle, Beetle, Golf, Rabbit, Polo, Beetle, Jetta, Beetle. When you think Toyota you don't think Avalon, you think Corolla, Camry.
You labeled yourself with your constant pro VW posts in every single thread. I like VW and I respect them. I don't need to see constantly why VW is some "Greatest car maker ever" in every single post.
Looking back at it, all I did was post a couple of fun pics I found and post why I liked Wendelin and then I posted links to his rise/fall and his accomplishments.
Not sure why YOU felt going on a rampage about him and Toyota was necessary.
Bottom line is he is gone, Porsche will be their 10th brand and its funny that Porsche started as tarted up VWs, tried their best to break away from VW and now is bought by them again.
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Gojirra99
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11-27-08 09:14 AM
ceo, lean, management, manufacturing, phaeton, piech, porche, porsche, style, turnaround, vw, wiedeking
