As you may have read in the news, the German automotive industry is under unprecedented pressure. It is the result of a mix of internal factors, changing geopolitics, new technologies, new competitors and last but not least a dysfunctional German government. Volkswagen Group, the company I have been associated with for decades, has been hit exceptionally hard. It is not the first crisis we see in the company, but this time it is different. A lot of what is happening now, and the internal shortcoming that lead to failing to confront it, have been visible for a long time. And I don’t say this in hindsight. A tragic mix of inertia, complacency, arrogance, governance issues and political interference have veiled the realities of a new world order of the auto industry. Volkswagen, especially in Germany, is in many aspects not so much managed like a company but it is more of a “brotherhood” (with only very few “sisters”).
Naturally, when I sent out my recent seasonal greetings, it reached a lot of these “brothers” and some “sisters”. I left 2015, but bonds remain strong. And there followed dozens of calls, to catch up. In the last decade, as I was the youngest back then, I have seen many retiring, and some sadly even died - sometimes just months after their corporate farewell. But this time, it is different. This time, it’s my direct former peers which quit or are pushed into early retirement. It’s those who remember their first working day in the passive Wolfsburg plant, and how they walked into the HR Department to report duty. It’s my fellows from the high potential development programs shaping the “leaders of the future”. And that future now is past. For many of them, it has been 30 years or more with the firm. And most of them think, where is the time gone, since I walked through “Tor Sandkamp” (Gate Sandkamp) for the first time. Don’t get me wrong, all of them had amazing careers and explored the world. All of them made the fortunes you can make working in the management of a true global player in that industry. But still, the time now seems lost to them. And with it some of the skills, they could now use perfectly, for example playing an instrument, the patience of reading a book, and distinguishing between friends and network.
Luckily, I never had this. I think, I was quite a free spirit during my times in any company, but very loyal to the people I work with. All I wanted, was to work on exciting topics and I never really pursued a career. Career, what ever that actually is, was just a result of the work I did. My career is the thing HR figures out, somewhere in their dusty corner. They don’t need me for that, right? I was not even aware I had a career, like I am also not really aware that I am approaching 60. Sure, sometimes you need a big title to get things done. A big name card opens bigger doors. It’s like in a computer game. There they call it tools, weapons, or assets, don’t they? It’s about the size of the toys they give you. It’s not about your size.
I have been discussing with a friend whether this attitude maybe the result of coming from a refugee family. Once you learn, that all can be taken away from you by “the system” - for sure your home, and even your life - you may stay more of a free agent. But I also know decedents of refugees, which put all into rebuilding their old life, just in a different place, where they gain trust into institutions. We had this twice: once fleeing from East Prussia and then from the Soviet occupied East Germany into the West. This part of the family never regained trust into any “system” and for sure not into any government. And then there was my father, running away from a steel worker’s apprenticeship in Differdange (Luxembourg) as a teenager looking for adventure and a better future. And then, for myself, there maybe perhaps an influence of what is called the (notorious) “Generation-X”, the latchkey kids brought up on garden hose water and neglect. Back then, we called it freedom.
In any case, I can remember anything I every did. Perhaps not the years, but the projects. There are no gaps and no time lost in my memory, even though I don’t think much about it. Thinking back to the beginning of my time in Volkswagen in the Wolfsburg headquarter, I found the picture of my view on the powerplant on an early winter morning. It was the time the factory was alive and running, workers changing shifts and many of the “office guys” did not wake up yet. That’s the golden hour in which the world is still in some kind of harmony.