"That means going to China to see how people work there."
Germans already did this in the 19th century: That time, it was learning from England. Max Eyth, a writer and engineer, wrote about it. We are able to do it again. And, by the way, although "made in Germany" became some superpower overwhelming English industry due to these guys, there still are English people working in manufacturing. The same will be true when China is the coming (or rather existing) industrial superpower.
The bet of „in China for China“ didn’t work for VW. Their next bet is „in China for the rest of the World except the US“. Let’s see how this works. The problem is that they buy their core technology in China.
Ah, all the global Tier I suppliers are in China, and VW leans heavily on them. (I see this in detail through the site visits and reports judging PACE Awards winners.) Plus technology is embedded in the teams that develop new products, not blueprints and patents. Whether VW Europe can benefit is a matter of organizational structure, not "China".
If HQ in Germany is bound by committees, and can't work across organizational boundaries ("chimneys"), then they can't get innovations into vehicles in a timely manner. Can HQ operate at China Speed? The Tier I's can work across time zones and their Europe staff are well integrated with their Chinese and North American staff. I suspect that's not (yet?) true for VW.
A separate issue is that the new models in China are being launched in a shrinking market. VW has to capture share from BYD and Geely and Leap and Chery, the tide is ebbing. One year earlier and VW would have been in a far better position. That's true for exporting and not just domestic sales.
"That means going to China to see how people work there."
Germans already did this in the 19th century: That time, it was learning from England. Max Eyth, a writer and engineer, wrote about it. We are able to do it again. And, by the way, although "made in Germany" became some superpower overwhelming English industry due to these guys, there still are English people working in manufacturing. The same will be true when China is the coming (or rather existing) industrial superpower.
Thanks, this is fascinating, and helps me think about the challenges of changing strategic direction when the new product is not incremental.
A question: can VW leverage its Anhui "In China, For China" for its core European market?
My most recent SeekingAlpha article was on VW but behind a paywall. I have a few pieces on my own substack (smitka.sub...).
The bet of „in China for China“ didn’t work for VW. Their next bet is „in China for the rest of the World except the US“. Let’s see how this works. The problem is that they buy their core technology in China.
Ah, all the global Tier I suppliers are in China, and VW leans heavily on them. (I see this in detail through the site visits and reports judging PACE Awards winners.) Plus technology is embedded in the teams that develop new products, not blueprints and patents. Whether VW Europe can benefit is a matter of organizational structure, not "China".
If HQ in Germany is bound by committees, and can't work across organizational boundaries ("chimneys"), then they can't get innovations into vehicles in a timely manner. Can HQ operate at China Speed? The Tier I's can work across time zones and their Europe staff are well integrated with their Chinese and North American staff. I suspect that's not (yet?) true for VW.
A separate issue is that the new models in China are being launched in a shrinking market. VW has to capture share from BYD and Geely and Leap and Chery, the tide is ebbing. One year earlier and VW would have been in a far better position. That's true for exporting and not just domestic sales.