Herbert Diess, a former BMW executive who joined Volkswagen two months before the emissions scandal exploded, was named chief executive by the Volkswagen supervisory board and now must demonstrate that he can navigate the company’s well known insular, hierarchical company culture.
Being an outsider to both Volkswagen and the company’s base of Wolfsburg, can either help or deter Diess as one of his primary tasks is changing the culture to establish a stronger whistle-blower system, and ensure that employees believe they can use it.
“Culture is certainly the most difficult task for Diess,” said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen who follows the car industry.
Read the article at The New York Times.
