Porsche’s Most Controversial Engineer

This week, Germany's Justice Minister drafted legislation that would prevent Porsche from shuttering car factories without the consent of Volkswagen's blue-collar workforce. Although Porsche controls a 30% stake in the Volkswagen Group, Berlin may require 80% of VW shareholders to approve all major decisions which affect the Wolfsburg-based car company. Last October, Europe's highest court overturned key sections of the Volkswagen Law, a 1960 statute which was designed to protect VW from takeover. Whereas Porsche once eyed the purchase of additional shares in Volkswagen, analysts now worry that Porsche is no longer in the driver's seat.

Wendelin Wiedeking, Porsche's CEO, has threatened to slay any of VW's "sacred cows" that get in the way of his Stuttgart-based company. With state elections scheduled for the next few weeks and months, however, Wiedeking has suddenly become a target of sorts. According to The Wall Street Journal, ordinary Germans (and politicians) are bashing industry leaders such as Wiedeking in a fit of "social envy". In return for making Porsche the world's most profitable car company, the CEO was recently awarded the richest pay package in German industry, worth an estimated $85 to $100 million (USD). According to the Times Online, a British website which named Wiedeking its businessman of the year for 2007, "the astonishing success of Porsche is entirely down to him".

The holder of a doctorate in engineering from Rhenish-Westphalian Technical University (RWTH), Wiedeking makes an easy target. Known as "the Rambo of the Germany motor industry", he may be heard muttering his trademark phrase – "you had better take care" – in the tones of professional assassin. "I hardly know of any boardroom executive who likes him," whispers a senior manager at a rival company. Nevertheless, the CEO whom Der Spiegel once labeled "The Baron" may be more than just a Machiavellian prince. According to the Times Online, Wiedeking is genuinely concerned that "without the car industry as the biggest single employer in the country, Germany would . . . become a zoological garden for visitors from the Far East." And as Porsche's CEO warned a group of high school graduates last year, "The shortage of engineers (in Germany) is putting our ability to compete at risk".

Resources:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120026702330087133.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/movers_and_shakers/article3107376.ece

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=motoringSummary&storyID=2008-01-18T094539Z_01_CAS835110_RTRUKOC_0_VOLKSWAGEN-LAW.xml

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/03/09/porsche-ceo-concerned-about-shortage-of-engineers/

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=motoringSummary&storyID=2008-01-18T094539Z_01_CAS835110_RTRUKOC_0_VOLKSWAGEN-LAW.xml

http://www.motortrend.com/features/auto_news/2007/112_070214news_porsche_volkswagen_takeover

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2007/12/31/2003395065

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendelin_Wiedeking