Spiegel interview martin winterkorn biography
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SPIEGEL: Mr. Winterkorn, have you succumbed to megalomania?
Winterkorn: What makes you say that?
SPIEGEL: The VW Group plans to almost double its sales, to 10 million vehicles. You hope to replace Toyota as the world's largest automaker. You are building new plants in China, the United States and India. You already have eight car brands, including Porsche, as well as three truck brands and a new stake in Suzuki.
Winterkorn: It's true, we have set ourselves some very ambitious goals for the period between now and 2018, but they're certainly not megalomaniacal. First, we want to be the most attractive employer in the industry. Second, we want to achieve the highest grad of customer satisfaction and, third, a pre-tax return on sales of more than 8 percent. Once we have achieved these three goals, the fourth goal -- that of becoming the world's largest automaker -- will happen on its own.
SPIEGEL: Certainly not entirely on its own.
Winterkorn: Of course not. B
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The first defeat was bad enough. It amounted to a collective recognition by executives at German car companies that they had misjudged the situation. More than two years ago they made a decision, a first in the history of the German automotive industry, to emulate the Japanese and build hybrid automobiles.
The issue could no longer be ignored. The savings that can be achieved with the hybrid gasoline and electric engine are simply too substantial. Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking experienced the second setback more directly. Wiedeking wanted the best hybrid engine for his company's gas-guzzling Cayenne SUV, and he wanted it as quickly as possible. His first move was to contact Toyota, the pioneer in hybrid technology.
The Japanese told Wiedeking that they could help him, but only by providing the full package -- in other words, the platform for the entire vehicle. The Japanese insisted that merely buying the individual components, as Wiedeking had envisioned, made no sense
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VW boss Martin Winterkorn's rise and fall
Mr Winterkorn had been at the helm of Volkswagen since the beginning of 2007, but this year it all turned sour.
The emissions crisis that forced him out came just five months after he saw off another challenge to his leadership. On that occasion, however, internal company politics, not external regulators, were at the heart of the matter.
For reasons which remain unclear, the company's chairman at the time, Ferdinand Piech, moved against Mr Winterkorn, expressing critical views of him in an interview with Der Spiegel news magazine.
Until that point, the two men had been seen as close allies. But according to unconfirmed reports, the bone of contention was the firm's difficulties in cracking the US market - again, a point that appears prophetic when viewed in retrospect.
The dispute between the two men caused ructions within the car giant's complex power structure.
Mr Piech must have been confident of winning the ba