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Osamu Suzuki Blog Bombs Volkswagen
by
Bertel Schmitt
(IC: employee)
Published: July 7th, 2011
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Things are not going well between Volkswagen and Suzuki. In 2009, Volkswagen invested $2.5 billion for a 19.9 percent share in Suzuki. Suzuki sent $1.13 billion back and bought 2.5 percent of Volkswagen. Suzuki netted $1.37 billion, domo arigatou gozaimasu, but then nothing happened. End of last year, Ferdinand Piech became impatient. Volkswagen stockholders asked discomforting questions at the annual meeting. Now, it turned into a war of the words. Volkswagen uses old media. The octogenarian Osamu Suzuki drops a massive blog bomb on Wolfsburg. A month ago, Volkswagen leaked to Der Spiegel that the German-Nipponese axis is “a big disappointment.” Old prejudices were unearthed. “Suzuki wants as much modern technology as possible from Volkswagen, but is not willing to reciprocate,” wrote Der Spiegel after an obvious (but unsaid) tête-à-tête with Martin Winterkorn, who allegedly said that “the Japanese still need some training in proper cooperation.”Now, Osamu Suzuki fires back. He could have summoned a few trusted Japanese journos and dropped some deniable off-the-record remarks. He did not. He sat down and wrote a blog that was published in The Nikkei [sub] in the Japanese language. Suzuki uses strong language:
- “Since the companies differ in size, people of Volkswagen may develop a mistaken impression that Suzuki is placed under their umbrella.”
- “The initial basic agreement seems to falter.”
- “We learnt about Volkswagen’s technologies, but we did not find any one of them interesting enough to adopt immediately.”
- “If we are short of any technology, we have an option to ask other companies with which we benefit from technological exchanges.”
Bertel Schmitt
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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Published July 7th, 2011 12:06 PM
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Is this the same company that thinks its Sizashi, or whatever, can out corner a stretch limousine and outrun a motorised sofa? The technology and the advanced thinking boggles the mind. If it wasn't for Indian sales, this outfit would be gone the way of SAAB by now. And as usual, the Germans are demonstrating their arrogance over a weak opponent.
Osamu and bomb in the same sentence. Who woulda thunk it?