In an effort to be more efficient when it comes to marketing, the Volkswagen Group has restructured its organization, aimed towards a lead brand leading the Group in a specific region. In short, the lot of brands within the group will be assigned with a specific region, onto which it will have a hand in making decisions for the Group.

The main objective of the restructuring is to tailor-fit the model range of each brands to the relevant market requirements and customers’ needs. These factors are rapidly changing, and assigning a specific brand to oversee the developments will make the revert faster and more organised.

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The distribution of responsibilities will be as follows. The VW brand will head the operations in North America, South America, and the Sub-Saharan region, while SEAT will lead the growing market in North Africa. Audi, on the other hand, will oversee the Asia-Pacific region, while Skoda will lead the Group to strengthen its markets in Russia and India.

The latter is rather interesting, as the Group announced its market offensive called India 2.0, which focuses on VW and Skoda brands towards the Indian market. Preparations for the local production and development of new mass market models are already in the process for India.

Another important market is China, in which the corporate overseer will remain to the Group, out of Audi’s hands. With China’s growing automotive market, it’s wise for the VW Group to focus on it with strategic mindset, especially that the Chinese market is receptive of electrified vehicles.

'We are distributing the responsibility across several shoulders. This means that it will be possible to take decisions in a significantly more decentralised way in the future and the Group Board of Management will be able to concentrate on overarching strategic topics. This way, we will make Volkswagen faster, slimmer and more efficient,' said Dr. Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen Group.

Source: Volkswagen

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Volkswagen defines new Group structure more precisely: brands assume responsibility for regions

  • Group CEO Dr. Herbert Diess: “We are distributing responsibility across a number of shoulders and making Volkswagen faster, slimmer and more efficient.”

 

The Volkswagen Group is pushing ahead with the structural realignment of its organization. In future, one lead brand will assume steering responsibility for a clearly defined region of the world across the Group. Dr. Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen Group, says: “We are distributing the responsibility across several shoulders. This means that it will be possible to take decisions in a significantly more decentralized way in the future and the Group Board of Management will be able to concentrate on overarching strategic topics. This way, we will make Volkswagen faster, slimmer and more efficient.”

 

In future, responsibility for the regions within the Volkswagen Group will be distributed as follows. The Volkswagen brand will assume responsibility for North America, South America and the Sub-Saharan region. SEAT will be responsible for the growing market in North Africa. AUDI will coordinate the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region except China. Responsibility for China will be retained by the Group. ŠKODA is to be responsible for the markets of Russia and India and is to sustainably strengthen the market position of the Group in the growing market of India with the “INDIA 2.0” project and the related model offensive of the Volkswagen and ŠKODA brands. Preparations for the local development and production of the new, technically groundbreaking volume models are already well underway.

The objective of assigning responsibility for the regions is to tailor the model range to the relevant market requirements and customers’ needs rapidly and effectively on the basis of regional knowledge and competences and through intensive cooperation with local partners. In future, the regional lead brand will be tasked with synchronizing the Group strategy for its region in liaison with the brands in the region, as well as coordinating brand activities, partnerships and the exploitation of synergy effects.