GM's Girsky Hearts VW
The car business is tuning into a mutual admiration society. Volkswagen wants to be like Toyota, Toyota wants to learn from Nissan. Now, GM wants to learn from Volkswagen. GM’s Vice Chairman Stephen Girsky says that the new benchmark for GM is Volkswagen.
“We are envious of their profit margins. If we get as good as they are, then everything will be alright.”
This is what Girsky told Germany’s Handelsblatt in New York. GM has to make do with an operative margin of between five and six percent. Volkswagen can do eight to nine. GM, the company that had to euthanize brands to survive, looks admiringly at Volkswagen which is successful in “managing multiple brands while controlling costs through common parts.”
The mutual admiration society is accepting new members. Anybody ready to admire GM?
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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The Opel pictured suggests they are trying to blatantly copy the E60 5-series.
VW learned lots from GM. Doesn't anyone here remember Ignacio Lopez?
Ohh geeze, so they want to go back to blatant badge engineering and everything that entails. It still amazes me how VW can badge engineer the heck out of every platform and yet GM/Ford are still blasted for it when they don't do it nearly as blatantly.
In the future - the automobile will morph into one model: VolksNissaGeneYota.