HErbert Diess is not one of those managers who gave up quickly. Last year, he twice tried to extend the contract with the CEO of the majority automobile group. In the third attempt, it now works. On Friday, the Volkswagen Supervisory Board approved Diess’s new contract, which lasts until October 2025. The old contract will last until 2023.
Diess will celebrate its 67th birthday in October 2025. Hans Dieter Pötsch, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, stated that the Supervisory Board believes that under the leadership of Diss, Volkswagen has the best prerequisites for “sustainable and successful development of the entire company, especially focusing on the 2030 strategy”. This strategy is the most important item on the agenda of the meeting in Wolfsburg on Friday afternoon: Diss provided information about his ten-year plan, which he intends to announce to the public on Tuesday after approval by the supervisory board.
The strategy should not only involve new goals for accelerating the shift to electric vehicles and digital network cars and autonomous driving, but also completely change the group structure, including 11 brands including Volkswagen, Seat, Skoda, Audi, Porsche and Bentley.
What is remarkable about Diss’ new strategy and contract extension is that the public dispute between the Labor and Management Committee and Diss has not become a reality, and such disputes are common in Volkswagen. In the environment of employee representatives, some people even talk about the “big hit”, indicating how Volkswagen should develop in the past decade. In a letter distributed to employees that evening, Diss, Human Resources Director Gunnar Kilian, and the new Chairman of the Work Committee Daniela Cavallo pointed out that employee qualifications should be a core component of the new strategy. The main factory in Wolfsburg plans to build a new technology development center. Volkswagen hopes to invest 800 million euros there. The giant battery production plant in Salzgitter’s plan is still managed by Volkswagen-therefore, the work committee is also responsible for the employees of battery production.
Converted to a software-driven company
Osterlow, the former chairman of the Labor Committee, strongly opposed Diss’s contract renewal last year. Even on the public stage, he did not oppose it this time. In an announcement by the Board of Supervisors, it stated in the evening that the broad qualifications of the workforce were the “decisive success factor” when switching to a software-driven company. “Here, the Supervisory Board believes that the Volkswagen Group’s labor committee and joint decision-making are the obvious advantages for jointly shaping the company’s restructuring.”
