BMW now has as much, if not more, influence over the British auto industry than when it owned the ailing West Midlands company.
A Teutonic takeover at some of the world’s best-loved marques — the Germans own as well as manage Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Mini — could be cause for concern.
After Kraft’s controversial takeover of Cadbury, ministers are discussing changing the rules to make it harder for foreigners to buy British assets. But the awkward truth is that the new breed of men in rimless spectacles is having a great deal more success making English cars than the chaps called Bob and Dave who preceded them.
“German ownership helped to save the British motor industry from death, and now German management is reinventing it,” said Tom Purves, the outgoing chief executive of Rolls-Royce and the last British boss. “Whether it’s a Jaguar XK or a Bentley Continental, a Rolls-Royce or a Mini, they are really great cars.”
The sales figures prove it. Mini is the most successful car of the modern era. BMW has sold 1.7m of them around the world — almost one third more than the firm dared to hope.
Bentley was hit by the credit crunch but is still achieving its sales goals. Aston Martin sales are up and the firm is profitable. Rolls-Royce hit its 1,000 annual sales target last year in spite of the recession. Tata reports that global sales of Range Rovers and Land Rovers more than tripled in January from the same month last year to 13,295. Sales of Jaguar cars more than doubled to 2,974 over the same period.
The German/BMW clean sweep prompts a ticklish question: are Germans naturally better at making cars than us? At the Geneva motor show, which ends today, each German chief executive was quick to point out that a Brit, Nick Reilly, runs GM in Europe and Ian Robertson, who is from Oswestry, Shropshire, is on the BMW board.
As a Swiss, Bahar can be less diplomatic. “Germans have a better approach and higher expectations.” Purves agreed: “The German culture is well suited to the high discipline of automotive manufacturing.”
Why? “Cars are in our blood. We all grew up around cars,” said Ulrich Eichhorn, chief engineer at Bentley. “My family ran a petrol station.
Dr Paefgen worked in the car workshop of his father.”
A strong engineering sector gives managers from Germany an edge, Paefgen said. “Appreciation of an engineer in England is a lot lower than in Germany. You value them less and pay them less.
“The best car bosses are engineers. They know the product. Nobody can pull the wool over their eyes. Engineers also get taught to analyse situations, set targets and define how to get there. You get a disciplined approach to management but engineers also have great passion about the cars.”
Goller agrees engineering is key. “If we don’t deliver substance — a Mini that handles like a go-kart or a Rolls-Royce that wafts you along — it will not work.”
However, he points to the importance of brand, too. “We work really hard to find the essence of brands and interpret that in a modern way. BMW has successfully reinvented brands at opposite ends of the market: Mini and Rolls-Royce.”
Although the German chief executives come from similar backgrounds, the reasons their brands have been successful vary. For Bentley and Rolls-Royce, it is about heritage. “We are not selling English cars, we are selling English lifestyle and, as foreigners, we are more conscious of what the world sees as Englishness and how they value it,” said Paefgen. “The Brits don’t realise how much the rest of the world loves them for a bit of Scottish tartan, a cup of tea and being dark green and racy. When I arrived at Bentley they wanted to repaint the factory black and silver because it was modern. I said: ‘No. Bentley is green’.”
For Aston Martin, however, heritage is a curse. Bez believes Paefgen’s vision of Ye Olde Englande is an appalling Disney version of the country. “I want to take the tradition out and put the modernity in. I want our cars to be as separate from the past as the buildings of Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid are from cottages in the Cotswolds. That is the strength of England. England has led the world in so many things, including cars and technology. That’s what we are rediscovering at Aston Martin. We have the most advanced, the coolest car in the world.”
Things might be going well for German chief executives here but you can’t help but wonder what would happen if the spanner were in the other hand. If Britons ran Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen, what would the Germans say? Not much, said Goller. “The car industry is globalised. Nationality does not matter. What matters is whether the leader understands brands.”
So which cars are cooler — German or English? “English, definitely,” said Eichhorn. “In German cars quirkiness is engineered out in the quest for perfection. They are like a person perfect at everything but not very engaging, witty or charming. English cars have more emotion, more charm, more soul.”
No comments:
Post a Comment