Volkswagen Boss’s Nazi Comments Are Hard to Excuse
Herbert Diess has many of the qualities needed to manage the electric car transition, but does he have the skills to communicate with worried workers?
Volkswagen's boss will probably keep his job, despite saying something incredibly stupid.
Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images EuropeVolkswagen AG is gearing up for the most sweeping transformation to affect the car industry since the invention of the automobile. It’s a moment that requires corporate leaders to make bold technological bets, tear up established structures and consider new partnerships and business models. It also means thousands of well-paid manufacturing jobs will disappear.
VW boss Herbert Diess has many of the qualities needed to manage that transition, including a long-term vision, an eye for unnecessary costs and dogged determination. Yet he appears to lack at least one key skill that’s essential for anyone managing painful change: political and human sensitivity.