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Ferdinand Karl Piëch was the most intelligent & skilled engineer in the Porsche family since Ferdinand Porsche.
And it's also true he was a pretty ruthless manager. And I have been fascinated by his unusual career since the
1970's. When I read about his resignation from the VW Supervisory Board, where he was it's Chairman, in April
of 2015, I started a thread here on Rennlist that anticipated that something very 'strange' was about to happen at
the VW Group. In their 'wisdom', the moderators moved it from the 991 gt3 forum to Off Topic to die an untimely
death, as that is what happens normally with all topics in that seldom read forum.
And shortly after I started my thread, the VW Group experienced 'Dieselgate' starting in September of 2015 & the
damage has not yet subsided. It will go down as the most expensive & 'stupid' self-inflicted wound that a large
multinational corporation has ever suffered in history! Some of you that are students of history might find interesting
information posted in this thread as the scandal unfolded in its early stages.
*
In that first post, I stated the following about Ferdinand Karl Piëch and how he should NOT be underestimated even
though it looked like he had lost this 'fight' against Martin Winterkorn in the Supervisory Board of the VW Group:
And sure enough, Piëch lived up to his cunning reputation to the very end. Last April, Martin Winterkorn 'was also
charged in Germany by regional prosecutors of the city of Braunschweig of fraud, of violating laws prohibiting unfair
competition as well as breach of trust.' Not only did Piëch avoid responsibility for the VW scandal that tainted so
many executives & engineers in the VW Group, including his cousin Dr. Wolfgang Porsche, but he also monetized
his shares of the Porsche-Piëch family ownership in the VW Group ahead of others. And that sale of stock, in the
long run, might be judged as his wisest financial move ever! We will see. Understand that this scandal is not yet
over. Potentially, there are many other shoes to drop...perhaps touching members of the Porsche family itself.
So God's speed to you, Ferninand Karl Piëch! You will be missed in the automotive world. And those of us that
benefited one way or another from his brilliant engineering & managerial skills via products that he innovated
first at Porsche, then at Audi and finally at the VW Group are eternally grateful!
God's Speed to Ferdinand Piech who gave us the 914 and Boxster...
Ferdinand Piëch gave us a lot of innovation at Porsche, but I don't remember the 'Boxster' as being one of them.
As a board member, he might have liked & approved that model. But I don't think he had much to do with it. But
please correct me if I am missing something on this topic.
As a long hood aficionado here is what I remember best about Piëch. At his last year of direct employment with
Porsche, he insisted in pushing towards the center of the 911 the oil reservoir to lessen weight in the very rear.
I & many other early 911 enthusiasts always think of Piëch every time we see that unique oil filler door on a MY
1972 911.
My friend Randy Wells posted in the Early 911S Registry about the work that Piëch did for the 911 in his last full year
at Zuffenhausen before all Porsche family members (except Ferry) were asked to leave due to internal squabbles
among the Porsche-Piëch cousins. Randy is talking about the MY1972 911 in his post below:
****
In any case, if you want to read what Porsche AG thinks are the important contributions that Ferdinand Piëch
made at Porsche while he worked there from 1963 to 1972, here is their official press release on his passing
published just 3 days ago:
Porsche mourns the death of Ferdinand Piëch 08/27/2019
Ferdinand Piëch, former Member of the Supervisory Board of Porsche AG, died on 25 August 2019 at the age of 82.
“The news of his death represents a very sad loss for us. Our thoughts are with Ferdinand Piëch’s family,” says Oliver Blume,
Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG. “His love of cars and his constant desire to drive forward technical progress
will never be forgotten. Piëch was an automotive man through and through,” according to Blume: “We thank him for his passion
and the courage with which he led Porsche to outstanding engineering achievements. Through strategic decisions, he laid the
foundations for successful development of our company.”
The fascination for cars already ran in his blood as the grandson of design engineer Ferdinand Porsche. He began his professional
career in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen on 1 April 1963 as an employee in the engine testing department at Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche KG.
After successful design of an oil cooler for the Type 904 race car and a 180 PS six-cylinder race engine, Piëch became head of the
testing department in 1966. The legendary six-cylinder boxer engine of the Porsche 911 was developed to series maturity under his
leadership. In 1968, Piëch was appointed Head of Development, before he assumed responsibility for the technology and external
development areas in the Executive Board of Porsche KG in 1971.
Piëch placed particular importance on professionalisation of the Porsche motor racing department, which achieved countless motorsport successes under his leadership. He had the 917 race car designed in 1969, a car which is still today considered to be one of the most successful race cars ever. The first overall victory of the 917 in Le Mans in 1970 under his leadership represented the start of a new era for Porsche. Due to the transformation of Porsche KG into a stock corporation and the decision that operational management positions should no longer be occupied by family members, he left the company in 1972 like all other family representatives. Ferdinand Piëch joined Audi in the same year.
He remained associated with Porsche as a Member of the Supervisory Board from 1981 to 2015. In 1984, Vienna Technical University
awarded him an honorary doctorate in technical sciences. In 1999, 132 car journalists and industry experts from 33 countries named
him “Car Manager of the Century”.
I can't let Piëch go without further mention of Dieselgate. He may have been a brilliant engineer, strategist and manager, but Dieselgate, IMO, puts such a scar on his reputation as to go along way towards destroying his other accomplishments.
Society cannot function without rules. He blatantly ordered/looked-the-other-way/tolerated the creation and installation into millions of cars systems which broke the laws of many countries and jeopardized the health of many millions of people. This cheating is awful. And it should be remembered when people think of him.
(And yes, I know that many people think the emission regulations have gone far beyond reasonable levels, but that doesn't excuse breaking the rules in order to make profits. Once we tolerate, or worse applaud, such conduct, we are ruined.)
I don't want to get into a p*ssing contest with BlacksheetSpyder but sometimes we all have to get judged.
He asked me what did I do for the world? Not all that much, I agree, although I created a company and gave good employment to 50+ people for several decades.
What I didn't do was pollute the air that millions of people have to breath -- against many many laws created by societies which duly enacted those regulations.
When I get to the Gates, I won't have to say to my Maker, "Well, yes, I polluted the air and sickened or worse the health of millions of people, but I did win LeMans a whole bunch of times."
I can't let Piëch go without further mention of Dieselgate.
He may have been a brilliant engineer, strategist and
manager, but Dieselgate, IMO, puts such a scar on his
reputation as to go along way towards destroying his
other accomplishments.
You do understand how the VW Group corporate hierarchy
works, which is typical of these larger German companies,
correct? There is a Management Board and a Supervisory
Board. The Management Board is made up of the executives
that actually run the company. The Supervisory Board is
responsible for monitoring the Management and approving
important corporate decisions. The Chairman of the Management
Board during all of the period now known as 'Dieselgate' was
Martin Winterkorn. Herr Winterkorn was appointed to head
the VW Group in 2007 & resigned in September of 2015,
the month in which the scandal was revealed. The US EPA
believes that over 400K VW Group vehicles sold in the US
between 2009 & 2015 had an emissions-compliance 'defeat
device' installed. And many other VW Group models were
sold in Europe & other markets that contained the 'defeat
device' too.
Ferdinand Piëch left the day-to-day management of VW
in 2002. During the period now known as 'Dieselgate', he
was only the Chairman of the Supervisory Board that
overlooked the Management Board. But this monitoring
was done from a considerable distance, as is the custom
of this type of German corporate structure. To give you
an idea of how distant is their work, the Supervisory Board
at VW met maybe 12/14 times a year, if that! And they
mostly relied on reports that are passed on to them by
the executives with actual managerial responsibilities
at VW.
There is no proof, or record, that the then Supervisory
Board of the VW Group was ever informed re: the use
of the 'defeat devices' on these diesel models. And keep
in mind that although Ferdinand Piech was the chair of
this Supervisory Board, the rest was made up of very
distinguished & important personalities in government
(Lower Saxony owns 11.8% shares & controls 20%
voting rights), labor unions (e.g. IG Metall), corporations
(e.g. Dr. Wolfgang Porsche) & even foreign entities like
Qatar who owned considerable shares in VW!
Although some in the press have tried to blame him
indirectly for the scandal (saying he did not tolerate failure & everyone was in fear of him), no one has
actually succeeded in pinning the blame for 'Dieselgate'
on Ferdinand Piëch - whether in the court of public
opinion or in the legal tribunals of Germany or other
countries affected by it. In the meantime, Winterkorn
& some of the other executives & engineers at the VW
Group are still under criminal investigation, or have
already been charged with 'crimes' by authorities in
various countries, including Germany & the US.
So before we blame Ferdinand Piëch for 'Dieselgate',
please let's examine carefully at the facts of the case.
Danke.
I would never consider challenging Eduardo (Z 356) and his extensive knowledge of VW corporate governance. And I have learned of nothing which proves that Piech had knowledge of the scandal.
Having said that, I do want to make 2 points about Dieselgate. The first is the old Navy adage that when the ship sinks it is always the captain's responsibility. The ship is his to run, his way; and the responsibility to run it successfully is his also.
The next point is that the cheating system was designed internally at Audi and introduced in their 2009 models. It then migrated throughout the VW corporate line into VW itself as well as Porsche (in their diesel SUVs) and Skoda [in 2+ million cars.]
It strains credulity to believe that those 11.5 million cheating cars and that progression throughout the VW empire could have occurred without any of top management or Board people being aware, including Piech. Der Spiegel, an important German magazine reported in 2015 that at least 30 top management people were aware of the cheating devices.
So, regarding Piech, is it proven that he knew? NO.
It is very likely that he knew? YES, at least in my opinion. He was, after all the Chairman of the Supervisory Board from before the scandal, during the entire time that the cheating cars were being produced, and only was forced out a few months before the scandal broke open publicly.
I would never consider challenging Eduardo (Z 356) and his extensive knowledge of VW corporate
governance.
Fhp I welcome any & all intellectual challenges on any topic. I don't have any particular expertise
in German corporate governance. I just study the facts of any case & then try to make sense of it.
*
Originally Posted by fhp911
Please read Bob Lutz' Road and Track article on Piech and the scandal from 2015.
Bob Lutz should be severely criticized for this article. R & T tells us how he was the 'Man' at several
auto companies. But this attempt to character assassinate Ferdinand Piëch based on extrapolation
of a simple conversation he heard long ago when Ferdinand was running VW is laughable!
'That's the way he ran everything. It's what I call a reign of terror and a culture where performance
was driven by fear and intimidation. He just says, "You will sell diesels in the U.S., and you will not
fail. Do it, or I'll find somebody who will." The guy was absolutely brutal.'
Sounds more like an attempt at pseudo-psychological analysis by someone that is frankly not trained
to give us that type of 'opinion' & masqueraded as an expert 'clinical evaluation'.
The fact is that when Ferdinand Piëch he ruled with an iron fist. But since he left day to day management
of VW in 2002, he can't be accused of the decisions made by the actual managers of VW, Audi, Porsche,
etc. That is not the way the Supervisory Board worked at VW or anywhere else.
*
Originally Posted by fhp911
And I have learned of nothing which proves that Piech had knowledge of the scandal. Having said
that, I do want to make 2 points about Dieselgate. The first is the old Navy adage that when the ship
sinks it is always the captain's responsibility. The ship is his to run, his way; and the responsibility to
run it successfully is his also.
Originally Posted by fhp911
So, regarding Piech, is it proven that he knew? NO. It is very likely that he knew? YES, at least in my
opinion. He was, after all the Chairman of the Supervisory Board from before the scandal, during the
entire time that the cheating cars were being produced, and only was forced out a few months before
the scandal broke open publicly...His name is indelibly stained.
This is a red herring. To use your analogy, the ship was being actually 'run' by Martin Winterkorn.
So if the captain must go down with the ship, it's Herr Winterkorn. But if you want to also blame
the Supervisory Board (the one that seldom meets & just 'monitors' the work of the Management
Board), then you need to be consistent & critique everyone that was part of it...not just Ferdinand
Piëch who was it's chair.
Here was the Supervisory Board of VW as of Dec 2014. If you are going to hold Ferdinand Piëch
responsible, please add to that roster each & everyone of these distinguished figures in the world
of government, labor, banks, corporations & sovereign wealth funds:
A casual review of the list of important dignitaries that made up the Supervisory Board of VW at that time
will alert everyone that this is not a simple case were a dictatorial chairman simply ran roughshod over an
entire management team of seasoned professionals and/or a supervisory boards full novices & decorative
'potted plants'!
Originally Posted by fhp911
The next point is that the cheating system was designed internally at Audi and introduced in their 2009
models. It then migrated throughout the VW corporate line into VW itself as well as Porsche (in their
diesel SUVs) and Skoda [in 2+ million cars.]
It strains credulity to believe that those 11.5 million cheating cars and that progression throughout the
VW empire could have occurred without any of top management or Board people being aware, including
Piech. Der Spiegel, an important German magazine reported in 2015 that at least 30 top management
people were aware of the cheating devices.
Now we are getting to the truly interesting part of 'Dieselgate'. We can analyze this much deeper if anyone
wants to join me in that deeper discussion. The blame for 'Dieselgate' is probably the entire German auto
industry, many whom skirted the 'diesel' regulations from the beginning, including the subcontractors like
Robert Bosch who supplied each & everyone of those defeat devices. This is a failure of the German auto
industry in general & of the VW Group in particular. For if you are going to pull such a stunt in such vast
scale, you need to be better at it than was the case of the German engineers, managers & suppliers that
brought this scandal to us. And that is now basis of the vast lawsuits in Germany that accuse the VW
Group of failing their fiduciary responsibilities to its shareholders.
With all of its interesting stories & intrigues, 'Dieselgate' is the biggest management failure that Germany
has ever experienced in its history. And it's consequences are not all yet manifest. More shoes will drop.
And it might have dire consequences for Porsche AG and the Porsche-Piëch family fortunes!
As Eduardo is well aware, when I was looking for a longhood, it had to be a '72...
(I'm sure the family dynamics at the funeral were interesting as he fathered two children with one of his cousin's wives- I believe it was Gerd Porsche's wife at the time.)
08-28-2019, 12:45 AM
