Recently, due to the combination of unfavorable factors such as global supply chain disruptions and price increases, the Volkswagen Group has released a growth plan to reorganize its responsibilities. The plan will reduce the risks faced by the Volkswagen Group in its global operation by decentralizing more powers to regions and brands.
Interestingly, the plan is in line with volkswagen group CEO Herbert Diess' recent remarks on LinkedIn. "Recent geopolitical changes have exposed our vulnerability globally, especially in the United States," he said. At present, the official launch of the responsibility restructuring plan can be understood as a breakthrough for The Challenges Faced by the Volkswagen Group in globalization.
Regarding the liability restructuring, Diess said volkswagen group will release more details on how responsibility will be distributed in the coming weeks, bluntly saying that "our competitors are no longer Mercedes-Benz, Toyota or Stallantis, but Tesla, Foxconn, Apple, LG Electronics and Uber, among others." ”
It is foreseeable that with the evolution of the global pattern brought about by multiple factors such as local wars and epidemics, the decentralization of power similar to Volkswagen Group may be staged in more global car companies in the future.
For the Volkswagen Group, it is not surprising that the plan to adopt decentralization is also not surprising. As one of the most powerful global automotive manufacturers, as of December 2021, the Volkswagen Group has 12 brands from 7 European countries and 120 plants worldwide. In terms of employees, there are 672,800 people.
Therefore, it is not difficult to see that under such a large volume, the effectiveness of management will directly affect the performance of its operating performance. In the face of an increasingly complex global situation, the practice of delegating more power in exchange for performance is undoubtedly wise for the Volkswagen Group.
And this kind of decentralization has already shown signs before. For example, the third concept car in the sphere series released by Volkswagen's luxury brand Audi recently, the Audi urbansphere concept car, is designed by the Chinese design team independently, and for the first time in the design process, Chinese customers are invited to co-create.
As for why this approach is adopted, it has to do with China as the largest single market for Audi and even the Volkswagen Group. Audi needs to better understand the needs of local Chinese consumers in order to better cope with the already fierce competition in the local area.
At the same time, Volkswagen's Porsche is also planning to spin off and list, which will have a higher degree of freedom after listing. It can be guessed that with the official launch of Volkswagen's growth plan, similar cases will become more and more common in the future.