WHY Volkswagen’s chairman, Ferdinand Piëch, failed to remove its chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, is unclear. Most observers reckon that the pair fell out over VW’s strategy but are astounded that the wily Mr Piëch (pictured, centre), a member of the family that controls the German carmaker, was forced to resign on April 25th, instead of pushing out Mr Winterkorn (pictured, right). What is obvious is that, in his 22 years as the firm’s CEO and then chairman, Mr Piëch’s obsession with making it the world’s biggest and best carmaker has left it with some significant weaknesses, in its original VW brand and in the American market.
Having got rid of the group’s previous CEO, Bernd Pischetsrieder, in 2006, through a combination of a public snub and a behind-the-scenes campaign, Mr Piëch probably reckoned the same trick would work again. In a recent interview in Der Spiegel, a news magazine, he said he was “at a distance” from Mr Winterkorn. But other members of the group’s supervisory board backed the CEO.
Mr Piëch’s defeat leaves Mr Winterkorn in pole...
from The Economist: Business http://ift.tt/1JUIPVw
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