Case Study Porsche

The turnaround posed by Wendelin Wiedeking for lean manufacturing and synchronised engineering sought the engineers to take a rather negative view. Engineers at Porsche preferred to stay with Porsche’s old strategy of individualism. The thoughts of ignoring synchronisation and working on outside engineering making secret profits was appealing. Management would need to work on that through persuasion. Also, additional training is crucial as, ‘Porsche didn’t have a full-fledged, adult rated simultaneous engineering process’.

Porsche may not have thought through the initial idea of the Cayenne. Although it was made in conjunction with the Volkswagen partnership and shared similar features as the Volkswagen Touareg, people felt the brand was corrupted.

Johnson, Whittington and Scholes (2011) quote a merger as, ‘the combination of two previously separate organisations, typically as more or less equal partners’. As their knowledge and capabilities are shared, the question is would they be kept among one another? Or, if disagreements rose could information be leaked to other carmakers? Both cultures need to collaborate for current and future success. If not, the industry observers believe, ‘when cultural issues are in play, the products can suffer and when the products suffer, so does everything else at a car company’. The Porsche Engineering Group (PEG) may also find itself in difficulty as carmakers they help, may disassociate themselves as Volkswagen share Porsches knowledge. The 5:1 ratio can come into play, such that for Porsche it could be 5 times as difficult to retain original custom as to attract new

Branson’s corporate rationale reveals that Virgin are a family orientated company who do not believe in the hierarchy. Value that is added to group is associated with Virgins marketing and public relations, creating many of their greenfield/start-up ventures and its institutionalisation of markets such that Branson does not feel threatened by competitors as they do not treat their customers like royalty as Virgin do. In terms of the greenfield/start-up ventures the corporate rationale, Branson asks questions such as, ‘where can competitive advantage be developed’? and, ‘can the market the company exists in be