VW Vows to Focus on Profits, Not Volume

Volkswagen Group is developing a new business plan that will shift the company’s focus from sales volume to profitability, according to new CEO Matthias Mueller.

“We need a culture of openness and cooperation,” he adds. Mueller concedes that “a lot of things were subordinated to the desire to be ‘faster, higher, larger’” under the previous Strategy 2018 plan of former CEO Martin Winterkorn.

He urges VW employees to “display more courage, greater creativity and more entrepreneurial spirit” with each other as the company rebalances its quest for sales with a stronger focus on qualitative growth.

Mueller says his five-point Strategy 2025, to be detailed next summer, will ensure the company “remains one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers.”

The muted description tempers the fixation Winterkorn had since 2010 to outsell Toyota Motor Corp. by 2018 and become the world’s highest-volume carmaker. VW surpassed Toyota in the first half of 2015 but fell behind again in July-September.

Mueller says his top priority now is to support VW’s customers in the wake of the company’s disclosure that it rigged 11 million diesel-powered vehicles to cheat government emission tests. He also promises an “extremely thorough” probe and speedy conclusion of its investigation into the scandal. The company has hired audit firm Deloitte to help with the process.

Mueller’s other priorities include decentralizing the company’s structure and changing a corporate culture that has put too much emphasis on the “pursuit of perfection” and not enough on social responsibility.