As the world's largest automobile group, Volkswagen Group has staged many infighting dramas in recent years.

Just in June this year, Diss, CEO of Volkswagen Group, was suddenly deprived of the title of CEO of Volkswagen brand and apologized to the members of the board of supervisors for his inappropriate remarks. Unexpectedly, at the end of 2020, the popular version of Game of Thrones has a new plot.

Last Friday, a source told Reuters that Diss, CEO of Volkswagen Group, appealed to Piech and the Porsche family, who have the majority voting rights, to support him in extending his contract. On Tuesday, the Executive Committee of the Board of Supervisors of Volkswagen Group will hold a meeting to discuss the renewal of Diss' contract.

Whether Diss can renew his contract is not only related to his personal career prospects in Volkswagen Group, but also related to the smooth implementation of the reform plan he led. Therefore, this vote is actually to let the supervisory board of Volkswagen Group make a public statement to see if the party supporting CEO Diss can hold the majority.

Mass trade unions opposed to diss everywhere

In 20 15, diss jumped from BMW to Volkswagen group and became the CEO of Volkswagen brand. In 20 18, he was appointed as the CEO of the whole group and began to lead the transformation and reform plan of the whole group.

The contract between Diss and Volkswagen will expire in 2023. Traditionally, he will be told whether he can renew his contract one year before it expires, but this time Diss is very eager to renew it as soon as possible. He applied in May this year, but was opposed by the board of supervisors.

It is not difficult to understand why Diss should know in advance whether the contract can be renewed, because the road to reform of the Volkswagen Group he leads is very difficult, and there are many obstacles along the way, especially the power from the trade union, which has been unfavorable to him.

The fuse this time is the departure of the chief financial officer and chief procurement officer of Volkswagen Group. As CEO, Diss put forward his own list of candidates, but this nomination was opposed by union representatives.

Not long ago, the rumor that Volkswagen Group wants to sell brands such as Ducati and Bugatti is also one of the contradictions between the two sides. Diss has always advocated that Volkswagen Group "slim down" and cut off non-core businesses and brands, which is more conducive to the group's transformation to electrification and digitalization. However, trade unions and other shareholders opposed it, so "slimming" has always stayed in the idea stage and has not been implemented.

Furthermore, in June, Diss was suddenly deprived of the position of CEO of Volkswagen brand. The reason is that Volkswagen's heavy new car ID.3 encountered software failure before it went on the market and had to be postponed. However, this confidential information was disclosed to the media by some people in the board of supervisors, which led to the questioning of Volkswagen's electrification and digitalization capabilities.

When such an important model fault was leaked, Diss directly accused the members of the board of supervisors at the internal meeting, but was quickly given a run and directly deprived him of the title of CEO of Volkswagen brand. Edith also had to be soft and apologize for his inappropriate words.

Incidents like this are piling up, which makes the relationship between Diss and trade union representatives more and more tense, and also makes his road to reform difficult. Now Edith is finally fed up.

Last week, in a column published in German Business Daily, Diss directly put the stale system problems of Volkswagen Group on the table, saying that he decided to change the outdated structure of Volkswagen at the beginning of his tenure and make the company more modern and flexible. Although many people in the group support and cooperate with his idea, "some places don't, especially the headquarters."

Diss also pointed out that although Volkswagen Group has scale advantages in the production and manufacturing of traditional cars, this advantage will become a burden when major reforms are carried out.

The public has long been afraid of trade unions.

Within audi ag, the Porsche-Piech family is the largest shareholder, holding 53% of the voting rights, and the government of Lower Saxony (where Volkswagen is headquartered) controls 20% of the voting rights, making it the second largest shareholder. Therefore, Professor Ferdinand Duden Hoff, director of the Duisburg Automotive Research Center in Germany, said that Volkswagen Group is essentially a "listed state-owned enterprise".

Volkswagen Group has a board of supervisors composed of 20 people, which is responsible for appointing and supervising the management of the group and approving the company's major decisions. The Board of Supervisors consists of members of Porsche Piech family, representatives from Lower Saxony and trade union representatives.

Diss and Bernd, chairman of the Volkswagen Group Trade Union? Osterloh

Half of these 20 people are occupied by trade unions, and Lower Saxony, which holds the other two seats, firmly stands on the side of trade unions. Although the Porsche-Piech family supported the reformists of Diss, they did not want to openly oppose the trade unions.

The internal decision of the automobile group is mainly decided by the trade union. This strange management structure has been criticized by investors. Not long ago, Bernstein analyst arndt Elinhost sent a petition to representatives of the Porsche-Piech family, hoping that they could directly express their support for Diss.

Arndt pointed out in the petition that although the status of trade unions is very important, this mode of safeguarding rights in the public is obviously outdated, and the infighting between trade unions and management makes investors feel uneasy. If every decision is made, it will be blocked so much, which is obviously not conducive to future operations.

Arndt believes that trade unions and management should work in the same direction instead of opposing each other, otherwise it will only aggravate internal friction. Therefore, he called on the two families to "either fully support CEO Diss or replace him, and quickly find a new CEO candidate, and don't waste any more time."

Professor Ferdinand also pointed out that the infighting problem of Volkswagen Group has existed for more than 50 years, and the balance of power between shareholders and trade unions has not been realized. The whole group is dominated by trade unions, so the old problems have appeared repeatedly for so many years.

Now as CEO, Diss is tired, so I hope the Board of Supervisors will make a statement on whether to renew the contract as soon as possible. Obviously, he is telling several major shareholders, "either support me or fire me", and don't waste time vacillating.

Whether Diss will stay or not also determines whether the reform of Volkswagen Group can be carried out smoothly. Just last month, Diss just announced that it will increase its investment in electrification and digitalization, and will invest 73 billion euros in new technologies in the next five years.

If Diss's term cannot be extended beyond 2023, how can this investment be implemented?

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.