Volkswagen shows two sides of pushy culture
A hard management style often results in pressure to perform and reward for closed eyes
London
THE scandal at Volkswagen might look like the sort of stupid mistake that could easily have been avoided. Not so. The carmaker's installation of unauthorised and illegal software capable of falsifying emissions test results in 11.5 million vehicles is the sort of problem that highly successful companies find very difficult to avoid.
Start with an obvious point: fiddling emissions was clearly not a good idea. Such defeat devices were explicitly banned in the European Union in 2007 and had not been tolerated by US regulators for decades. VW itself had a run-in with the Environmental Protection Agency on a switch that limited emissions back in 1973, the Wall Street Journal reported. Then there was a 2007 letter from parts supplier Bosch warning of possible foul play, as reported in the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. In 2011, VW's supervisory board received warnings of manipulation, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported.
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Companies & Markets
Holiday Inn owner IHG’s Q1 revenue up 2.6%, leisure travel demand remains strong
SocGen Q1 profit slumps less than expected as investment bank surprises
Wall Street Journal moves Asia headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore
Macquarie sees biggest profit dip in 15 years on commodities downturn
HSBC appoints ex-Citi banker as new Singapore head of global banking
H2G Green chief to stand trial on Aug 5 amid MOM probe