The "reformer" Dies is afraid that this time he will be more fierce and less evil. In recent years, the "reformists" represented by Dies and the "conservatives" represented by the trade unions have been fighting openly and secretly. Although Dis was not defeated last year, he was also reduced, belonging to "wounding the enemy three hundred and losing one thousand." Now, with a new round of personnel adjustments, Dis's rights are being eroded.
Dis, was overhead
A few months after the rumors, Volkswagen's personnel changes came true.
On the evening of December 9, the Volkswagen Group held a supervisory board and made a series of personnel changes.
Specifically, Volkswagen Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of the Board of Management Dies will succeed Markus Duesmann in early 2022 with overall responsibility for the software division.
Ralf Brandst, CEO of volkswagen passenger cars, will be responsible for the new "Volkswagen passenger car" division from January 1, 2022, and will also be responsible for the China business from August 1 next year. At the same time, Ralf Brandst tter will also join the Group's Board of Management, responsible for the management of volkswagen's passenger car brand.
Thomas Sch fer, current Chairman of the Board of Management of Skoda Automotive, will take over from Ralf Brandst tter as Chief Operating Officer of the Volkswagen Passenger Car Brand from April 1 next year, and will join the Group's Management Board on July 1. It also means that both Ralf Brandst tter and Thomas Sch fer have been "promoted".
In addition, several senior executives are making adjustments in this appointment.
Public information shows that after Ralf Brandst tter joined the Volkswagen Group in 1993, it has been within the Volkswagen Group, which can be called the representative of the Volkswagen local faction, while Diess parachuted in volkswagen from BMW in 2015 and is the representative of the airborne faction.
Throughout the appointment, Dies's position was further reduced, and The scope of Power of Ralf Brandst tter increased.
In fact, Diess began to be stripped of power last year. The ceo of Volkswagen Brand, the most core management authority of Diess, was taken over by Ralf Brandst tter.
Diess will also lose control of the Chinese market. As the single market with the largest sales volume of the Volkswagen Group, the Chinese market leader in the Chinese market can be described as a high authority within the Volkswagen Group.
Diess attaches great importance to the position of the Chinese market, Feng Sihan is a hand of Diess, and Dies also holds the position of a member of the management board of the Volkswagen Group, so Diess has the decision-making power to the business in China, and it can even be said that Feng Sihan is only The "pawn" of Diess. With this personnel change, Diess may lose control of the Chinese market.
According to previous reports in the German media, Ralf Brandst tter will take over as CEO of Volkswagen Group (China). And Feng Sihan has previously admitted that he will leave China, but did not disclose when he will leave. Although the public officially did not confirm this above news, from this appointment, this rumor is basically a nail in the coffin. If Ralf Brandst, who has a position as a member of the Board of Directors of the Volkswagen Group, takes over the role, it means that Diess will no longer be able to make decisions about the China business. The careers of Dis and Von Sihan may not be clear.
History seems to repeat itself. Previously, Diess and Feng Sihan took over the Volkswagen China business and firmly held the power in their own hands, and now just two years later, Dies and Feng Sihan will give up this power.
The masses, the infighting that has been feuding for a long time
More than 70 years ago, in order to protect the rights of employees, the public established a trade union with strong influence.
On the supervisory board, where Volkswagen is above the board, unions hold nearly half of the seats, which means that the rights of trade unions can even determine the fate of the top.
The contradiction dispute between Diess and the union originated from the 2018 Dies des Diess electrification transformation and cost reduction and efficiency increase policy. In the process of electrification and cost reduction and efficiency, Diess plans to cut 30,000 jobs by 2023, saving about 3.7 billion euros. Although this can save financial costs, it is diametrically opposed to the original purpose of the trade unions to protect human rights, so the trade unions are firmly opposed to this, but the "reformist" Dies has always been known for being tough and does not agree with the opinions of the unions, and the two have since been at odds.
In June 2020, in order to ensure that the Supervisory Board supported its reforms, Diess applied for an extension of the contract a year in advance, but the union refused, so Diess pointed the gunfire at the Supervisory Board, accusing the members of the Supervisory Board of having ghosts and leaking the public's highly confidential software problems to the media, resulting in serious problems in the software exposed at key points in time.
Due to the fierce rhetoric, it completely angered the supervisory board, which at one point considered terminating the contract with Dis. In the end, the storm ended with Diess publicly apologizing and being stripped of the title of CEO of Volkswagen Brands, and Diess' rights were greatly weakened.
In November of the same year, Dies did not give up and again applied for an extension of the contract, but this time the proposal was again rejected by the union, and The Dies plan was blocked. Subsequently, when the union celebrated its 75th anniversary, almost all Volkswagen executives participated in the celebration, but in contrast, Dis not only did not attend the event, but also elaborated on the long-term infighting with the union in the media, pointing out that the strong influence of the union seriously hindered the reform of the masses. "With or without Volkswagen, there will be change in ten years." Dees said so emphatically. The contradictions between the two sides have entered a white-hot stage.
In the end, Dies had to turn to the two families of Pierch and Porsche, and after obtaining support, it was able to smoothly extend the contract period, and the two people elected by Diess took up the new "technical" positions of Volkswagen's chief financial officer and parts company affairs respectively.
After the contract storm, the contradiction between Dies and the union did not stop there. On November 4, Volkswagen held a staff meeting. Dis's unplanned presence caused resentment among the unions, and even gunpowder to the outside world, which could lead to longer and more intense internal conflicts. In order to avoid more intense conflict, Dies had to interrupt his plans to attend the convention.
However, Dees did not back down in the slightest, saying that he would not change his previous plan. This also means that the dispute that has lasted for nearly three years is still not over, and there will be a possibility of outbreak in the future.
Change does not stop, and infighting is inevitable
The wheel of history is slowly moving forward, and change is always with it.
In the face of the strong rise of new car-making forces such as Tesla and Wei Xiaoli, and the gap between the transition from the fuel era to the new energy era, most car companies, including Volkswagen, understand that change is inevitable.
PwC research shows that by 2030, the profit share of the global automotive industry may be reduced from 85% to less than 50%. Traditional car companies naturally do not want to see this situation.
Last year, BMW planned to invest more than 30 billion euros in electrification research and development and technological innovation by 2025; Mercedes-Benz announced in July that from 2025, the pure electric platform will be the only choice for all newly released model architectures.
In addition to these European brands, Japanese brands such as Honda and Nissan, Korean brands such as Hyundai Kia, and American brands such as GM and Ford have joined the tide of electrification transformation.
In fact, neither reformists nor conservatives among Volkswagen have opposed Volkswagen's transition to electrification and digitalization. Previously, the Supervisory Board, which represents the overall interests of the public, issued a statement that the members "unanimously decided" to fully support Diess' strategy, especially the transformation to electrification.
After all, volkswagen failure is not good for anyone in the company. It was only Dees who threw the reputation of the second half of his life into this change, and formulated a new ten-year development strategy for this purpose, and invested a lot of human and financial resources. And 600,000 employees also need to be paid, not to mention the arrival of unemployment due to the epidemic.
And perhaps Dies can learn from the experience of its peers. In fact, the traditional car companies that have laid off large-scale employees in order to transform are not only Volkswagen. Previously, GM laid off more than 14,000 people to carry out its own reforms by shutting down factories and streamlining managers. Although this reform caused opposition from the American unions and led to a general strike of employees, the incident was quickly quelled and did not hinder the company's reform process.
This may be understood as saying that the union needs the company to transform successfully and then keep the jobs of employees, but It is not only Dies who leads the transformation of the company. When that time comes, where will Dees go?