NSIt was the complex questions that the head of the Volkswagen Supervisory Board, Hans-Dieter Pötsch, had to clear up in the past few days. The 70-year-old manager is intimately familiar with the company and has the trust of the families of shareholders in Porsche and Piëch, the best prerequisite to calming things down over and over again when things go wrong at the company of 670,000 employees worldwide. Recently there was a new dispute between the CEO Herbert Dess On the one hand, the powerful Business Council and the state of Lower Saxony, which is involved in the group, on the other hand, plunged the group into a management crisis. But for now, the opposing sides appear to be meeting again through Butch’s mediation.
The Supervisory Board’s planning round scheduled for Thursday, during which VW wants to toughen a series of decisions on board composition, investments in the next few years and employment prospects, will take place as planned, all those involved Tuesday said in unison. This wasn’t certain in the end. Because although the meeting has been postponed from the original date in mid-November to the target date now, it is still not clear if there will be enough time to reach an agreement – the situation was very complicated after CEO Deiss left the country and Business Council With arithmetic games about reducing up to 35,000 jobs against him. Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stefan Weil (SPD), Labor Council chairwoman Daniela Cavallo and IG Metall chairman Jörg Hoffmann, all members of the supervisory board, would have loved to have Dies kicked out of court.
IT woman
After days of crisis diplomacy, above all PotschFormerly the chief financial officer of Volkswagen and head of the family holding company Porsche SE, it is now clear that Diess can remain at the helm of the group. A final decision has yet to be made, but everything is pointing in that direction, several insiders confirmed Tuesday.
However, he may have to relinquish responsibility, at least for the segment of high-volume brands VW, seat and Škoda, for which he is currently responsible on the Board of Directors. VW brand chief Ralf Brandstätter, who will move to the board of directors, is likely to take over here too, at the urging of employees, who trust Brandstätter, which is popular with employees. At first, it was not clear what would happen to the management of the important business in China, which also falls at the board level in the hands of Deiss. It has long been suspected that the governor of the People’s Republic, Stefan Wallenstein, would return to Germany and be replaced.
Other personal details seem to be pretty well established. For example, the former chief legal advisor, Manfred Doss, was to rise to the top management ranks of Volkswagen and take the position of Heltraud Werner, who was previously responsible for integrity and legal management. Hauke Stars, who recently worked at Deutsche Börse, is set to become CIO, which means VW is killing two birds with one stone. Stars are considered highly qualified, and the new management positions law will soon impose a requirement that at companies with more than three members of the board of directors there must be at least one woman in their senior management. With the departure of Werner, the only woman so far on the Volkswagen board, that is no longer guaranteed.
There is no double forceps for DISES
On the employee side, Brandstätter employees should be especially important. The job board sees the emergence of Volkswagen’s head of brand ensuring that the sometimes ruthless and impulsive Diess won’t be the decisive person on important switch points. Doss, who has proven himself above all else in dealing with the diesel scandal, has a good reputation, especially on the part of families. It’s totally conceivable that he’d be watching dis as well, of course meaning Porsche and Piëchs, who value the CEO’s primary path toward transformation and electronic mobility, but are concerned about his ongoing power struggles with the employee bank.
The fact that Dess would henceforth be surrounded by some sort of double-pincer by Döss and Brandstätter came too short, according to company circles. That’s a lot of self-confidence, and Döss won’t allow himself to commit to the role of guardian of the VW chief.
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