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EP 9: Andreas Schlegel: Speeding through cultures with Porsche, Aston Martin, Lotus, and Williams Racing
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In this week's episode of The Auto Ethnographer podcast, host John Stech speaks with Andreas Schlegel on working in Germany, the United States, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. Andreas recounts his journey through a number of premium and performance brands including Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Aston Martin, Lotus Motorcars, and Volvo. He even did a stint with F1 team Williams Racing.
Growing up in the Stuttgart, Germany area, Andreas started his career with Mercedes-Benz in their Nachwuchsgruppe management trainee program. This took him to the US and South Africa for early intercultural work experience.
Andreas then found an opportunity with Porsche where he focused on dealer network management as well as directly supporting the company's Head of Sales & Marketing during an exciting growth period for the brand - the first-generation Cayenne was in the pipeline at the time.
His time at Porsche was then parlayed into several roles at Aston Martin including APAC Region Sales as well as leading the companies Dealer Network efforts. He would leave but later return to Aston Martin in the role of Global Marketing Director.
As Lotus Motorcars set about to reinvent itself with a slew of new products, Andreas joined the team as Director of Marketing. He would be the one to organize the introduction of five new Lotus concepts at the Paris Motorshow in 2010.
Shortly afterwards, Volvo cars would also set out on a path of reinvention. Andreas moved to Sweden to help guide the company's global dealer network strategy, a sweeping effort to modernize hundreds of dealers around the globe.
Perhaps most exciting, he joined the team at Williams Racing to build a heritage business, retrofitting and refurbishing old Williams F1 cars for well-heeled customers. This brought him to the heart of one of the most storied F1 teams on the circuit.
You can find links to all major podcast apps at The Auto Ethnographer homepage by clicking on https://www.auto-ethnographer.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Context Setting
00:00:00
Speaker
Sweden, Germany, Germanic country, how hard can it be? let's Let's take it on. Hello and welcome to the Auto Ethnographer. I'm John Steck, your host on this journey. We travel the globe to bring you stories about culture and the global automotive industry.
00:00:17
Speaker
Fasten your seatbelt and let's get started. This episode was recorded on Friday, the 28th of March in Bangkok, Thailand. exactly one hour after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake shook the city and the region.
00:00:32
Speaker
Although I was able to continue with my normal operations, many were not so lucky. I dedicate the episode to the victims of the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand.
Introducing Andreas Schlegel and His Career
00:00:42
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the AutoEthnographer.
00:00:45
Speaker
Today I have a special guest. I have Andreas Schlegel. He's coming in live from the UK, although normally he resides in Switzerland. Andreas has a long, rich history in marketing and dealer network development.
00:01:00
Speaker
He's worked with brands that probably make anybody jealous. Porsche, Aston Martin, Lotus Motor Cars, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo Cars, and even a Formula One team, Williams.
00:01:14
Speaker
He's led global marketing at Lotus Motor Cars and Aston Martin. He led global retail strategy at Volvo Cars and at Aston Martin. and at Williams Racing he was part of the executive committee.
00:01:28
Speaker
As you can imagine from the brands, Andreas spent some time working in Germany, the UK and Sweden, as well as some shorter stints in South Africa and in the United States. His roles were usually global in nature, so he had to work with countries across the globe to implement campaigns and strategies.
00:01:47
Speaker
With that, I'd like to welcome you, Andreas. Welcome to the Autoethnographer. Thanks, John. I'm really pleased to be here. Great pleasure and honor. And hope I hope I can share some of of my stories with you and hopefully to the audience day they might be of interest.
00:02:04
Speaker
Maybe let's go back to the beginning. If you want to start there, we can... you You used the words to describe your first role, which almost nobody can pronounce, which is Nachwuchsgruppe.
00:02:19
Speaker
yeah maybe we can start there. NAFUX Club, it was in was a great opportunity to get into the industry. And um and what is it?
00:02:30
Speaker
Well, what is it? ah They called it, i think the English term was an international management trainee program, very long winded. And I started there in 1998 after graduating from school. And I think the siege of of working internationally and dealing with different people and cultures was probably planted a lot earlier than that because um way back in 1990 so that's 35 years ago it makes me feel really really old um i uh i for the first time left germany to to live abroad in america when i went to columban high school in colorado and
00:03:08
Speaker
I think that kind of created that, that curiosity, that interest to go out and and explore and find out.
Experiences in the Mercedes Trainee Program
00:03:15
Speaker
And, uh, when, when then in, in, in 98, I had the opportunity, uh, through Mercedes to join that trainee program.
00:03:24
Speaker
I think it was simply a result of, of, of what happened before. And I thought, wow, this is fantastic. This is a once in a lifetime. This is in football terms, you know, the champions league, how to start the career and, uh,
00:03:37
Speaker
I was really thrilled to do that. um And it took me it took me ah through, obviously, the headquarters in Stuttgart. It took me to ah America, to Montveil. That's where we met in, I think that was in 99.
00:03:53
Speaker
where I met you and the colleagues, Greg and Christian, and and fantastic time. And then they took me down to South Africa because as not being an engineer, I thought, you know what, I'll never get to see planned shop floor operationally with the degree and the background I have.
00:04:13
Speaker
Why not do it during a trainee program? So ah it was fantastic time. It was really cool. What was your experience like in in New Jersey versus South Africa. i mean, these are two completely different places and two completely different experiences.
00:04:29
Speaker
One was sales and marketing. The other one was, as you said, manufacturing. In those days, ah you know, why why go to to the US? Because it was still the biggest market in the world.
00:04:41
Speaker
China was was not relevant in those days. And I thought I had been a a big fan of of America before already because I studied there. I went to high school there and I thought, yeah, I'd like to see how how is how does it work in the US? How is retail done?
00:04:58
Speaker
How are they running the biggest subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz? And it was fantastic. I learned so much. In particular, um the one thing that...
00:05:11
Speaker
Later in my career, I realized many times that and in the US, we we focused very much on on certified pre-owned vehicles and how to market them very professionally, how there's money to be made um through the second and the third life cycle of a car.
00:05:29
Speaker
And um maybe maybe that's the reason why i've I've always been a big advocate of of CPO programs because in those days, in 1999, I learned the importance of it, obviously for from a brand perspective, but also um from from a retailer's perspective because when but new car sales are maybe not as brilliant as they should be, it's a second leg to stand on next to the service business. And and that's...
00:05:57
Speaker
um I think those were my first interactions and experiences with with the retail business and understanding that there are three legs, you know, sales, use car sales and service that that the business is built on. So um an important lesson to learn in at the time, the most important market in the world.
00:06:14
Speaker
then you
Cultural Work Differences - New Jersey vs South Africa
00:06:15
Speaker
transitioned to South Africa, I think afterwards, right? Yeah. And I mean, culturally, um what I liked in in in in New Jersey was it was very direct. It was very hands-on.
00:06:25
Speaker
um It was a a lot less corporate than it was back at HQ in Stuttgart. um And for some reason, i think i ah clicked well with the American style of, you know, no bullshit, straight to the point, cut to the chase.
00:06:43
Speaker
Very, very honest and and and transparent. And In a way, it was very similar down in South Africa. But again, there were many things that were very, very different. and I was sent down there to to support the head of manufacturing. And as you can imagine in a, uh, not just in a German company, it was Mercedes in, in those days was still very Swabian, very Southern German German.
00:07:09
Speaker
So the gentleman who ran manufacturing, a lovely guy from Sindelfingen was, was sent down there to to, basically lay the foundation for the W two. Oh, was it two or three or two or two?
00:07:24
Speaker
It was the new C-class. which we intended to produce globally as a right-hand drive car in South Africa. And the gentleman was sent down there because he was, it was an absolute legend in single thing. And he knew how to build cars.
00:07:39
Speaker
um He knew how to ensure quality, but, When he had arrived in South Africa, there were professional challenges and they were personal challenges because his wife just had a stroke, uh, which put, you know, a lot of, a lot of topics on his plate. And and secondly, his English was, ah would say,
00:07:59
Speaker
um maybe not up to to the level in order to converse and and and and speak to the South Africans in a way that everybody understood what he meant. So he said, fantastic to have you here because he just managed to offload a lot of stuff to me.
00:08:17
Speaker
So I kind of became the interface between him and his first lines his first line managers. So we had simple challenges like, You know the assembly line would start, I think was 7.30 or 8 o'clock in the morning.
00:08:31
Speaker
And um what happened very often was people were not ready. People were not in the plans. um What do we do culturally? You know, big challenge.
00:08:43
Speaker
So he said, just have to think about it. What can we do to to make sure people are on time? And I said, okay, I spoke to the line managers. i you know They were not happy about this. So we said, let's do very, ah very basic time tracking system, meaning every workstation had ah everyday sheets of people that were meant to be there. um And you know if someone's late, he gets he gets a mark. um So we did it. ah i prepared that, I communicated with them.
00:09:16
Speaker
And we communicated that to the teams. And all of a sudden people realized, bloody hell, I need to be ah at work on time when the line starts. ah You could see people running towards their workstation.
00:09:31
Speaker
And yeah, it was. it was it was a very old-fashioned way of doing things but uh at least it worked so um now it was good times uh professionally and also socially because i think we had a great bond down there in in the team and uh in the end successfully we you know we launched that right and drive c-class and that was even produced in south africa for markets like japan were customers were really, really critical and and looked at the shut lines of the car and and um like in the other market in the world.
00:10:04
Speaker
After you had your South African adventure, you went back to the mothership in Stuttgart and you spent some time there um in the office before
Return to Stuttgart and Joining Porsche
00:10:16
Speaker
striking out on a new adventure.
00:10:18
Speaker
and Any big observations about work in Stuttgart versus what you experienced in the other two locations? Well, I brought a lot of things back there. I learned because being out in the market, it was, you know, fast, it was hands on, was,
00:10:34
Speaker
not many PowerPoints. It was, it was just getting things done. And then I came back into HQ in the famous, uh, Murring and headquarters. And, uh, you know, instead of wearing ah pair of chinos and, and, and a shirt, you had to show up in a suit. And it was those days, very old fashioned. And I thought, wow, it's a, it's kind of different here.
00:10:58
Speaker
Um, I had to ah adjust again and, um, which I did, but, I felt it was less fun because it was very hierarchical. It was very much, you know, what the boss wanted and and a very old school.
00:11:14
Speaker
Anyway, I did that and I tried to fit in um and and did the best in in what's called what was called a regional like a regional strategy team.
00:11:27
Speaker
And my boss reported to the senior VP of marketing and sales at the time. so it it It was ah it wast you know at at the top of the company, but the work style and the atmosphere was very, very different. you You sat in your office from early in the morning until late at night.
00:11:47
Speaker
It was very silent in the corridors and no one tried to make a noise. and And it was it was the days when Mercedes was clearly a a traditional German OEM, very different from what is probably now.
00:12:04
Speaker
As I recall, you really shifted gears into something not quite as traditional, or i should say, you know, stayed. I was approached to to join a different company, which by coincidence was in the same town, meaning Stuttgart, meaning Porsche. And, um, at the beginning I thought, why why should I, why should I leave Mercedes? Because my, I felt really, really strongly about the brands having, being a Swabian boy, having grown up with a Mercedes, uh, in, in the garage, um, all my life, um, you know,
00:12:41
Speaker
it didn't, it it was not an an obvious to, to, to leave that brand. Um, but, um, what kind of drove me was, uh, first interviews, first conversations I had with people in Porsche.
00:12:55
Speaker
And, um, I'll never forget, The final stage was having a meeting with ah the senior vice president marketing and sales, Hans Riedel at the time in Ludwigsberg where marketing and sales were located. And he he said to me, listen, Mr. Schlegel, if you join us here,
00:13:15
Speaker
Whatever you do, whatever you don't do, whatever you perform will be very visible. You'll be on a silver plate every day of the year. And that's the culture here. So we're moving fast, but we expect a lot from you.
00:13:28
Speaker
We were bought, but you have to you have to push. you have to We have to turn this place around. We just come out of making making losses. um We are in preparation of a third model line, which at the time was the Cayenne.
00:13:43
Speaker
So if you're up for a challenge, if you will want to roll up your sleeves, if you want to make a difference, this is the place to be. And I thought, you know what? I really like that.
00:13:53
Speaker
um i I was inspired by him. um And I thought, I think I have to take this challenge. And um so I think it was in 2000, I decided to to leave Mercedes and to join Porsche.
00:14:11
Speaker
It must've been a tremendously different environment to work in. You also then had a role that had a ah somewhat similar to Mercedes Benz, more global, um I guess a more global audience or responsibility, correct?
Role at Porsche and Developing a Global KPI System
00:14:28
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, my first role in Porsche was ah about, um, digital network and, and, uh, um, basically setting up, um, a performance measurement or, um, yeah, performance performance measurement system, um, similar to a balanced scorecard on a retail level, because see, we, we made tremendous investments into Korean, uh, which should double the sales volume of the company. And, uh, equally,
00:14:56
Speaker
we were a bit nervous that the dealers would be able to to kind of manage that in terms of their balance sheets, in terms of coping with the volume, in terms of facilities, everything about retail, we were concerned because the network was not prepared for that. And from a business management point of view, um we wanted to have certainty that we're not overloading the dealers with too much of a burden. We want to make sure they, they can, they can manage, the volume, they can manage the finances, but we had no idea who was making how much money.
00:15:29
Speaker
So the challenge I was given was set up a global, we called it a KPI system or a business management system. Um, and, uh,
00:15:40
Speaker
implement that with the key markets. um So again, and what like you said, it was a ah global project. um we We then spoke to the worldwide sales and marketing organization, and there were some obviously I would say more proactive markets and then maybe some more, well, less reactive markets. um The ones that that saw the need and and saw the benefit was the UK.
00:16:10
Speaker
um And then others like Italy, France followed very quickly. So we we kind of built a cluster and said, okay, let's it's categorize them as a pilot markets. Let's do it in those markets first.
00:16:22
Speaker
um And then let's see whether the others will follow. And that's what we did. so um in particular the UK, was was tremendously strong. They had the right mindset. They worked the dealers through KPIs and and they wanted to have something new because the deals way of looking at it, i think was still based on a VW platform and N400, very, very old school.
00:16:47
Speaker
So they said, no, we need something a lot more modern. um So I triggered that with with the UK team. Hence, I think I also developed a strong relationship to the UK from a business perspective because I felt They're very, when it comes to car retailing, they are very, very forward thinking. They're very ah modern. They're very fast in and in in the way they they manage retail.
00:17:12
Speaker
and So that worked out really, really positively. um And very soon we had we had out our case study that proved that the system was good. The dealers see a value in it.
00:17:26
Speaker
The national sales company sees the value in it. ah France and and Italy then managed to follow. um And then all of a sudden it snowballed and, you know, Japan jumped on the bandwagon.
00:17:37
Speaker
Australia, because of the UK connection, thought, you know what, that might be a good thing for us. So I reached out to the regional presidents uh in in those countries and uh i think then at some point germany came around and said oh yeah you know we'll we'll do that as well and what what what was ah a small project um you know became a global initiative and uh i would say my role in that was reaching out um to these countries to the people um in a collaborative way and and taking their thoughts and and considerations into account and setting up the standard and then give it the right momentum so it would become a global initiative which I must say I think up until this day that kind of tool is still in place and it's probably ah something small to be proud of so that gave you a lot of experience talking convincing
00:18:34
Speaker
some of the different uh leaderships in the different markets but then you yourself actually moved into a new role which which took you to a different vantage point right you you actually work directly for the head of sales and marketing which gives you ah a completely different view of the world as i said earlier um i'll never forget that meeting and in in reals office in juliksberg and and uh Um, all of a sudden, um, I, I had the opportunity to work as, as his, executive assistant, kind of a Lieutenant who gets to see everything. And, uh, I mean,
00:19:11
Speaker
what an insight into, into a company that was highly dynamic, highly driven by the CEO, Mr. Wiedeking at the time, um, with a very special culture in those days, uh, you know, work hard, play hard. Um, it was very direct, very emotional.
00:19:31
Speaker
Sometimes I don't want to say personal, but you know, um, tough for and some individuals who who didn't have a thick enough skin. um But at the same time, um you know, were team that wanted to change Porsche and the automotive world, were already in the dark. So we were always, we were always kind of kicking everybody else in the shin by kind of finding exceptions in regulations such as the German block or the European block exemption regulation, which again had an exception for small players like us in the way we,
00:20:22
Speaker
we went to market Porsche, Porsche was, was always looking for ah better solution than everybody else had. And, that kind of underdog mentality, I really, really liked. Um,
00:20:33
Speaker
and have been exposed to, to, you know, these top management topics and um what was, was just exceptional from things like Porsche design to new product developments.
00:20:46
Speaker
And in the end, you know, I was probably one of the first people who who got exposed to the whole plan of, of taking over VW around, that was around 2005, 2006. So it was massively interesting and i yeah a great place to learn and and to grow.
00:21:07
Speaker
Then you um you you took the experience ah from Porsche and you applied it to another company that is Very well known for their high performance vehicles, probably just as well known for who drives them, the famous you know British spy, James Bond 007.
Transition to Aston Martin and Brand Perception
00:21:29
Speaker
How was the the shift over to Aston Martin? This was your first time ah having really a ah fixed full-time employment with a company in ah in a new country.
00:21:41
Speaker
having Having worked with the UK before um in my first job in Porsche and, you know, getting to know the Brits and especially Porsche UK team at the time, I thought, you know, what can be so difficult? um But it's Porsche, Essel Martin. I think i I thought I knew how they work. I thought I knew how they take.
00:22:01
Speaker
and So taking on a job in Aston Martin, I thought it's a piece of cake, but it wasn't. um Initially, I mean, my my connection there was was Dr. Uli Bates, who was the CEO at the time and um very, very admirable engineer. And he he gave me that opportunity to kind of manage a team and and to really make a contribution there. But the way i when I came to the UK 2007 at the time,
00:22:30
Speaker
I thought the Porsche formula would also work in Aston Martin. and And I clearly learned very quickly that it didn't. um And maybe I'll give you an example through an anecdote.
00:22:43
Speaker
When we intended to launch the first DBS and the Vantage 4.7,
00:22:53
Speaker
in 2008 and we were preparing that launch it was down in Ascari in Spain and you know I thought wow fantastic this is this is my first global car launch to the dealers and I'm responsible for it great so I remember having that one conversation with the engineering team and I said guys you know this is planned now for early next year um Can I be sure that whatever the number was, it was like 25, 30 cars, that they will be ready ah for the launch because that's when I need the cars. And then now in 2007, I now need to commit to hotels, to the track. I need to spend money. I need to make payments.
00:23:34
Speaker
You know, I was out of pocket. And I said, I need to be certain that these cars will be ready because otherwise I'm stuck with the cost and I don't have a product. And I said, oh, you know, not so sure.
00:23:47
Speaker
We don't know yet. well we'll We'll do our best that it will happen, but we can't promise you. i said, well, it's very simple. In my world of Porsche, I said, if you don't meet these these deadlines, which you know we've agreed for many, many months, um you just need to cover my sunk cost because I don't have the money for it and I can't spend it twice.
00:24:09
Speaker
oof I tell you, that created a bit of a storm in the engineering department because i had the head of engineering coming at me and Ian Minnards was his name. And he said, Andres, this is not how we work.
00:24:25
Speaker
ah You can't put the cost on engineering if you want to launch this car and we'll do our best to make it happen. But you you need to stick to your responsibilities and you can't push it over to us. And I thought, whew, okay, the Porsche style wouldn't wouldn't work here. And learned my lesson.
00:24:42
Speaker
In the end, um and that's that's maybe a fascinating thing about the UK and in particular about the company in those days, it did work out. you know, the cars were there are on time. and we managed to do a fantastic event.
00:24:56
Speaker
Um, we had the global deal organization go through the cars and experience them over. I think it was a three week window down in the scary, um, including the press launch. We had great reviews and, um,
00:25:10
Speaker
And yet, you know, what made it happen was teamwork. It was not applying pressure as we would have done in Porsche. And it's a different way of of speaking to people. It's a different way of involving them.
00:25:23
Speaker
And um those kinds of examples were, I think, important for me to learn when when dealing in this case with with the Brits. But it also applies when you work with other cultures and nations.
00:25:36
Speaker
So beyond the you know different different environment of working between Aston Martin and Porsche, there's the the brand itself, right? There's this this Britishness about the brand.
00:25:50
Speaker
Can you talk about that a little bit? Because Porsche was always about really engineering, performance performance, technology, but that's not necessarily what Aston Martin was about.
00:26:03
Speaker
The Britishness, it's always has always been ah strong asset for the brand. And especially in those days, um you know the Bond theme was was was very prominent.
00:26:15
Speaker
The British agents. So I think the combination of the two made made a perfect match. And it felt like you can rock up anywhere in an Aston Martin and you don't get, you don't get envy from people that look at you.
00:26:32
Speaker
um You don't get, you know, the middle finger, you don't get um kind of bad looks or the kind of things you get if you rock up maybe in a,
00:26:45
Speaker
in a German or an Italian sports car. um And I've often, i must say, I've experienced that myself when when I sometimes was lucky enough to drive an Aston Martin and and and you're stuck in a traffic jam.
00:26:58
Speaker
People always let you in when you have to change lanes. and It's always the thumbs up and and it's the admiration. And I think an Aston Martin comes with style. um It doesn't come with the negative,
00:27:15
Speaker
connotations that some of the others do um and uh i do believe that the bond the bond connection um plays a a great part in this and in this po and in this positive connotation to say well and as the martin is is not just a sports car it's it's a sports car with style and elegance and you know If you look at James Bond and and and the way he he portrays the image and in in in the movies, being well dressed in a suit as a gentleman, that's what we heavily banked and and focused on in in those days.
00:27:55
Speaker
It's a gentleman who drives an Aston Martin. and not um somebody who does a dodgy business, somebody who you know is shady and and and deals with with awkward people.
00:28:07
Speaker
it's It's a gentleman, it's someone who's achieved. And I think, um It's always been a great brand asset, um probably up until this day, ah which played an important role for the so sophisticated kind sophisticated kind of customer who who considered buying a very expensive sports car.
Aston Martin in Asia and Dealer Operations
00:28:28
Speaker
Now, you were responsible for the sales sales operations for Asia-Pacific region for Aston Martin. How did all of this translate over to Asia?
00:28:39
Speaker
In those days, I must say Japan was was the biggest market because China was was not as strong And um and it's It's an exotic car to begin with. So in Japan, we had a few very, very strong deals and I think most of them are still around today.
00:28:57
Speaker
um But it it's it's a very long, usually it's a very long winded experience. The customers are very careful about their decisions.
00:29:10
Speaker
And it's almost like um a mythical experience to buy an Aston Martin in there, to really, you know, you go several times to the dealership, you want to see the car, you want to sit in the car, they look underneath the car in in in in the best case. And and it's ah it's a well thought through decision to to to put yourself into an Aston Martin. And that kind of, yeah, as I said, mythical image that that they buy into.
00:29:40
Speaker
I think it's it's even stronger in in in Asian markets than than it probably is in in the UK, which, you know, it's, i mean, it's still special in the UK, but it's the whole market. So it's very different.
00:29:52
Speaker
um And in in Asia, it's it's something very, very special to to to buy and to own in Aston Martin. Your next role in the company was to manage the global dealer network.
00:30:06
Speaker
I would imagine that the dealers had to be quite special as well, not only the customers, but the the dealers. How was it to work with dealers around the world? Are dealers the same everywhere or they really different by region?
00:30:21
Speaker
I think they're very different by region. I mean, as always, um you have yeah have the American dealers that are, you know,
00:30:31
Speaker
they're very different because they're usually multi-franchise dealers. Um, in many cases, it's almost like you're driving into a car mall and you have the luxury brands lined up. So there is an Aston Martin, in Ferrari, there's a Lamborghini here. And,
00:30:46
Speaker
I would say the challenge we always faced was that in Aston Martin, and that the dealers would but guide the customer to whichever is maybe an easier sell, not necessarily only focus on your brand, but ah focus on on what's what's easiest, what's best for them.
00:31:07
Speaker
um Whereas in other markets, you know, we open in my days back then, we opened up Brazil for the first time. We opened up South Korea. um We opened up China.
00:31:19
Speaker
um And where we set up new dealerships, it was all about exclusivity. it was about dedication, focus. So I think in indu in in those new markets, we had we had the chance to to avoid a dealer selling several brands in parallel, but to really make sure they focus only on us, which I think made made a big difference um to to how we represent or how they represented the brand in in their local market.
00:31:52
Speaker
My experience traveling around, especially in Latin America and even in in Russia, for example, was that there was a certain pride of the dealer with respect to the facility that they built.
00:32:08
Speaker
How did you experience that? you know Some dealers want to build the smallest facility possible and others want to build something that's you know much too large for the operation that they require.
00:32:19
Speaker
If you go to places like India um and to some extent in China, and you you could say big is beautiful. And that was the rule that applies. sometimes you think, you know we don't need that big of a showroom because if we're only selling 60, 70 units in a location, we don't need to we they't need a showroom for 10 cars.
00:32:40
Speaker
right And in particular in those days, we had a much we had a much smaller product lineup. um So um ah it's about sometimes you have to be conscious and and careful of managing the investors as well, because you need to protect them from themselves.
00:32:57
Speaker
Meaning if they over invest, they won't be happy with the returns. They won't be happy with the profitability. And I think as a, as a manufacturer and dependent on the region, you have a duty you know,
00:33:10
Speaker
of of interfering in this case and and and make sure the investment is in a reasonable balance to to what you actually can can sell. Yeah, no question about that. But it's also about egos. And as you know, especially in Asia, um you know,
00:33:29
Speaker
A bigger dealership means I'm more powerful, I'm more important, and ah not always an easy conversation to have when someone says, oh, I'm going to invest $10 million dollars into this showroom.
00:33:40
Speaker
And you think, no, actually, five would do. it's not about It's not about the money. It's about having a bigger dealership than the friend who runs maybe Lamborghini. right So it's not always rational. But, hey, that's what it's that's what it's like.
Revitalization Efforts at Lotus
00:33:55
Speaker
Speaking of additional, two-door sports car brands, since you brought up Lamborghini, but that's not where we're going here. You took an opportunity to go to Lotus Motorcars, which had for quite a long time been producing ah relatively small model lineup.
00:34:16
Speaker
the The cars had remained unchanged for quite some time, actually. And I think you arrived at Lotus Motorcars as the head of marketing at a really interesting time.
00:34:28
Speaker
Can you talk about that? That must have been a really interesting experience. It was an interesting experience. in many ways. um worked in Aston Martin beforehand and I was quite happy doing what I was doing. We managed a financial crisis. We had, ah you know, we we had a lot on our plates, um but it was a lot of firefighting and it was crisis management. And when I got approached to to join Lotus Cars, there was, and well, that was beginning of 2010.
00:34:59
Speaker
um a former colleague of mine said you know what we try to turn around lotus we try to make this brand great again and i thought wow i loved the idea of lotus because it was all about lightweight you know the legacy of colin chapman and having the privilege to work as the head of marketing for such a brand was i was just it was giving you goosebumps because you think wow you know it's i ah felt un I need to treat this brand like a raw egg because I was so protective of it um because of all the history and, you know, in Formula One and and the sports cars with with the Esprit and again, the James Bond legacy in with with with Roger Moore in those days.
00:35:46
Speaker
So a fantastic brand to work for. um And um would say, the team there was, there but there were kind of two camps. There was the Porsche camp, um, because the colleague that approached me came from Porsche as well.
00:36:02
Speaker
And, uh, and there was again, Ferrari camp. And, um, I thought, okay, um, I think we can, we can handle this. We can manage that. And, uh, so I gave myself a push and I said, um I'm going to go for it. Um, and I started a job in early 2010.
00:36:21
Speaker
And the CEO at the time, who was who was my boss, um said, I'd like to launch five cars at at the Paris show, which was later in the year. And I thought, five cars in one go? No one's done this before. And that's why he wanted to do it.
00:36:39
Speaker
Now, maybe being a bit conservative, but also ah quite realistic and rational, I thought, that's not a good idea.
00:36:50
Speaker
So I said, Danny, listen, I think one car, if we launch ESPRE as a halo, i think that that should do the job. That's enough. Because if we if we kind of spend all our fire power in one go, what else do we tell in the following years i think we need to keep some things up our sleeves and uh and and play our cards gradually step by step and but it was not it was not a discussion or a debate it was basically the boss set five cars in one go and I thought okay
00:37:26
Speaker
I tried to make the best out of it. So it was ah it was a huge challenge because, as I said, I started in early 2010. In September, there was the Paris salon and not much time to, let's say, redefine the corporate identity to you know come up with something completely new.
00:37:44
Speaker
um Luckily, ah had from... from my previous employer, I managed to um to kind of pinch some people and and and make them join Lotus together with me.
00:37:58
Speaker
So we had to run very, very fast, but at least we knew each other. Um, so we were, uh, it was a well-oiled machine that, uh, we ramped up and then we had this, this massive, uh, um, kind of, uh, press, uh, press launch in, in 2010 in September. And, uh, it was crazy. Um, and I said, as I said, uh, it was my idea to launch five cars in one go, but, uh,
00:38:23
Speaker
that's what he wanted and that's what we did. and But culturally it was, was, was very challenging because it was a classic clash of cultures. And unfortunately the, the Porsche side of the business kind of faded out within a year or two.
00:38:39
Speaker
um And the craziness of, of the CEO at the time took over and that's, That's when I realized this place might not be for me in in the long run.
00:38:49
Speaker
After this, you you started your first foray into vehicles that have four doors. True. yeah You also moved from one place that was not so sunny to a place that actually had even less sun, at least in the wintertime.
Volvo's Swedish Roots and Work Culture
00:39:08
Speaker
You went up to Volvo. And you went back actually into something you'd worked on quite a bit, both at Porsche and at Aston Martin, which was dealer network management, dealer network strategy.
00:39:21
Speaker
How was that? That was ah must have been a pretty big shift after some time working for two British brands going up to to Volvo. especially after Volvo was now kind of breaking free from its American management at Ford and and was now, you know, working in a new direction under Chinese management and getting actually back to its Swedish roots.
00:39:44
Speaker
That was about 2012. And I read a lot of stories about Volvo. So it was a very conscious decision when I was asked if if I'd be interested in going to Sweden.
00:39:55
Speaker
Now, The first thing was I had to speak to my partner, Sarah. And I said, listen, there's a job in Sweden. ah think it could be fantastic challenge because of everything I read about Volvo, the turnaround, Stefan Jacobi was leading that. And I felt brilliant because I thought at the time Volvo was a much underrated brand.
00:40:16
Speaker
always having the ambition to be premium, but never really got there. Um, the perception, especially in Germany, it was a bit, it's a teacher's car. It's a bit of a boring car. It's all about safety.
00:40:28
Speaker
Well, not such a bad thing. Um, But the brand didn't shine as much as it maybe did, you know, in the 70s and the 80s. And I thought, hmm, could I be part of this? Could I make a contribution?
00:40:43
Speaker
i thought, yes, I can. i think they would this would be great. And secondly, being a bit naive in those days when it came when it came to cultures and and countries and people, I thought, hmm,
00:40:55
Speaker
um you know, Sweden, Germany, Germanic country, how hard can it be? let's Let's take it on. So, funnily,
00:41:06
Speaker
ah My hiring manager at the time, also I think a German guy, um said, let's let's get you started in July. And I said, okay, whenever you tell me, I'm i'm flexible. um I had a bit of playtime and i I started in July.
00:41:25
Speaker
So I rocked up in July in Sweden and there was just no one around. And the people I did find around HQ, where think was HR, and they were telling me, why why why did you decide to start in July? And I said, well, I don't know, because I was told to be here in July.
00:41:45
Speaker
They said, well, in July, we're all on summer holiday, at least for four weeks, if not longer. So there's not much for you to do here. And and i was i was just puzzled. I thought, wow, this is this is very different. So that was a first cultural experience experience that the Swedes enjoyed their summer holiday.
00:42:06
Speaker
More on the professional side, it it was... um and was again a great experience and again i had to learn how how how does sweden and how the swedish companies operate and was really very much about involving people creating a consensus getting everybody on board and really i mean everybody um because if you don't um you might get spanner thrown into the works at the last minute and it all falls apart So the Swedes liked that collective agreement.
00:42:41
Speaker
And it was, yeah, ah learned I learned that kind of way of thinking and working, sometimes the hard way, sometimes in in a good way. But it was definitely something I had not been exposed to, neither in the UK nor in Germany. And um We spent, how long was it? It was nearly five years or something, now more than five years, nearly six years in Sweden. and ah Yeah, I left in in early 2018 and it was it was a fantastic time. We made great friends, even though um it's not easy to break the ice. It's not easy to get under the skin of the Swedes on a social level.
00:43:22
Speaker
Having also worked to with Volvo, at roughly at the same time. I also found it to be very unusual with the decision making, right?
00:43:32
Speaker
you You had a room full of managers. You came to what seemed to be an agreement. And then as soon as the door to the room opened and people walked out, it felt like the agreement stopped.
00:43:47
Speaker
And And it's which is very different than, you know working for a German company where once everybody shakes hands in the meeting room and says, yes, we do it.
00:44:00
Speaker
You actually do it. And there's no more discussion. Right. This this was very different. It required a little bit more work to get people in line, to get everyone to agree and to actually start forward on whatever that decision happened to be.
00:44:14
Speaker
Yeah, and interestingly, it reminds me of of one one kind of paradigm I've seen a few times. On the one side, obviously, there's a big Swedish community that operates exactly as you said.
00:44:27
Speaker
And at the time, after Jacobi, we had Håkan Samuelsson as the CEO. Now, Håkan, having lived, i don't know how many years in Germany, working for MAN and so on, up it felt like he he had a German mindset.
00:44:43
Speaker
So he came in, in many occasions and said, you know, this is what I want. This is what I want you to do. And the Swedes would be looking at him thinking, hmm, okay, this is one one of our guys, but he has a very clear opinion in terms of what he wants.
00:44:59
Speaker
um And he would be he would be very, very rigorous and ruthless about the direction. So one one example, you know i I can probably talk about this a little bit, is is and the franchise model. he he He was not a big fan of dealers. he He was not a big fan of putting extra marketing money behind cars to to move them.
00:45:20
Speaker
So on one occasion, he said, they're stealing my money. i want an agency model. I want to sell direct. um And I'm fed up with all this. Just do it. And i was like, wow, not an easy task. So I got the task to develop a strategy, how are we're going to implement an agency dealer model. And whilst he he had already set his mind on that mission, on that strategy and the direction, the remaining managers from the Swedish community were by far not on board.
00:45:56
Speaker
So the discussion still happened while he was already on to the next thing. um which didn't make it very easy, but um you have to kind of clean up the pieces then behind him. And and and again, and in in ah in a very Swedish way, then have individual meetings, convince people and do, I would say, the change management bit as an aftermath of the direction of of this particular CEO. I've been joking a little bit that you've worked for companies that have...
00:46:28
Speaker
two-door cars, you went to Volvo, four doors, almost all of them. And now you had the opportunity, a car with no doors.
00:46:39
Speaker
Probably the yeah probably the most exciting thing that that you could have found actually in ah in a career, which would be so exciting to hear about, is your stint at Williams Formula One racing team.
Managing Williams Heritage and Final Reflections
00:46:55
Speaker
It was an interesting thing because it was, i think in February or 2022, when I had my first encounter with Williams racing, I drove down to Grove, um, and I met the team principal Jos Capito, in the visiting center.
00:47:12
Speaker
And, uh, uh, it was a cold day. it was icy and, and, and I thought, Formula One team, you know, who is this guy? What's this company all about? I mean, obviously I knew Williams from, from my days of watching Formula One, but being there and so walking into the building, seeing, I think it was KK Rosberg's F1 car there. I thought, wow.
00:47:35
Speaker
This is again, very emotional, very much goosebumps. And um i was welcomed by the head of ah HR. And then we were waiting for Jos to come and he entered the room and I thought, wow, I can work with that guy. I thought I loved it because it was very hands-on, um very amicable, very sociable.
00:47:59
Speaker
um And he explained to me what what he's expecting. He said, you know, I expect you to run very fast, but you need to run your own you and kind of business unit here, which was the heritage department, meaning...
00:48:13
Speaker
F1 had changed dynamics massively in terms of ah the cost cap and in terms of leveraging things in cost cap and outside of cost cap and how to be efficient with all of this. And what he what he asked me to do was to to build up a separate separate business entity which which restores and runs historic Formula One cars um in order to generate work for the F1 team when they have flexibility to do so.
00:48:42
Speaker
but also to generate revenues from selling those cars or leasing those cars or finding operating ah models to, you know, to to have people enjoy those cars, um obviously for a fairly large amount of money.
00:48:55
Speaker
And we have really had a customer base of probably 15 20, ah people one of them is actually a four-time world champion um so i mean massively massively exciting the people you meet the people you deal with um a great honor and a great pleasure um and you know they're all passionate about motorsport and and those kind of things so in terms of you all on the same page you all love the same thing which was great But then when it came to the working and and and the style of of working, it was very high pace. um
00:49:34
Speaker
Turning things around quickly, making decisions quickly was really, really key. And I'll never forget the first day when I actually joined the team. I think it was in September of the same year of 22.
00:49:46
Speaker
And having been in consulting before, I looked at my team and um i could tell that they were wondering what the hell is this consultant doing here telling us what to do?
00:49:58
Speaker
And my my answer to them was, listen, guys, I'm not here to tell you how to engineer those cars, how to put them together, because by far you're much much more qualified to do that than I am.
00:50:14
Speaker
But my my mission and my my objective here is to set up this this business unit to make this viable and actually to make money with it by what I just described, restoring and running these cars and having having had more than 120 chassis sitting in in in a warehouse that were not in operations, you know that was that was a fantastic challenge. And setting up collaborations with was engine producers like Renault, like BMW and others, um
00:50:47
Speaker
That was something I felt i felt hugely emotional about. and And I thought, what a great business challenge. So we we got this all in place. We laid the foundation. i did set up these these collaborations um and, yeah, took the business on the on a different level.
00:51:05
Speaker
um And the rewards were also fantastic because I remember this one gentleman from London who... had three chassis from, I think it was from, let me think, 1994. It was an FW16. So that's the car people associate with Ayrton Senna and with Damon Hill.
00:51:26
Speaker
He had three of these chassis and all in bits and pieces, nothing working, obviously no electronics, no engine, no nothing. And he said, you know what, I want all of them to work. And I said, listen, this is going to be a huge, huge endeavor.
00:51:41
Speaker
And the hardest bit will be finding engines for you. He said, yeah, yeah, but you can make it happen. And... um it was about six or seven months later um i i gave him a call and i said listen jamie um i now managed to get confirmation for the first reno engine for the first car and he said wow i can't believe it and it it felt like a boy's dream coming through coming true and um
00:52:15
Speaker
So we managed to get it agreed. And ah from from the day onwards, we said, okay, let's let's kick off this project because we now have certainty that we have an engine. Now we need to and put the pieces together. We need to build those pieces that we didn't have you know out of composite.
00:52:31
Speaker
We need to develop the electronics for it. um We need to get that car up and running. And ah so it was a fantastic time with a fantastic team, which I built from...
00:52:41
Speaker
I think it was only six or seven people in the beginning. um And then we hired engineers, we hired more mechanics, um we expanded in terms of workshop size.
00:52:53
Speaker
So um I felt um there was a really, really fantastic opportunity to so set set up the Williams Heritage for success. And I'm sure they're taking it to to the next level now.
00:53:07
Speaker
How have you... maybe been influenced by these different, you know, working cultures or or national cultures. Do you find that that's changed you and made you a ah different person or you know, you've picked a little something up from each one of them?
00:53:26
Speaker
I would say... I think, i think let others judge, uh, the way I operate or the way I work. Um, I would say, i hope I did. and I hope I'm, I'm, you know, if, if, if I draw, if I drew a comparison between 1998 and now 2025, gosh, 27 years.
00:53:47
Speaker
Um, I would hope that individual that's that is more careful in the way I operate um in terms of how I read people, how I understand people, the things I say, um the things, you know, the comments you make when you're into a room.
00:54:11
Speaker
i think I'm more mindful of of of of other people's um backgrounds and perceptions. And so I think, yes, I ah think it's a very rich,
00:54:24
Speaker
kind of firm source of of experiences, which which i'm i'm I'm always happy to to tap into. um And I can put things much better in perspective, having lived and worked in in and many in many countries now. And and I think that's that's probably one of my my biggest assets, um, when entering a new endeavor, um, that I've been, I've been to places I've seen different cultures.
00:54:52
Speaker
Um, I had to adjust. And what I do mean is not just going there, you know, on a, on a, with a return tickets. I've, I've gone full in when, when I left Germany in 2007, there was no return ticket to Porsche. There was no return ticket to Mercedes.
00:55:07
Speaker
Um, i had I had to make it work. I had to fight my way through it. i had to collaborate my way through it. And I think having gone through all of this makes me makes me much stronger. And and I think i'm I'm kind of... I've got my...
00:55:25
Speaker
my my toolbox together now um and whatever comes as as as ah as a next step i think i hope i'm i'm well prepared for it so um let's let's see what's what's next on the agenda after all these brands ah maybe will be something a lot more boring i don't know um but having having also worked for these fantastic brands ah Equally, i think what's important to me now is the people I work with. And um maybe you know maybe it might be a less glamorous in the future,
00:56:02
Speaker
but um but the people I'm going to work with, ah that will be the most important thing because people make all the difference, whether it's in Sweden, in the UK, in Germany or in the end, it's all people business and understanding those people. And I think that's what what's what's stuck with me. These are incredibly meaningful words. And it's a fantastic story that that you tell that ties all of that together.
00:56:29
Speaker
Well, Andreas, thank you very much for joining us today and to share your story. I think it's really meaningful and very and inspirational for a lot of people. you know, to have worked on so many incredible brands and and in some really interesting locations.
00:56:46
Speaker
So thanks for joining us today. Really appreciate to have you on the Autoethnographer. Well, thank you, John. It's been a pleasure as always when when we speak. um And yeah, i'm I'm really pleased I could share some of my stories with you and the audience. So thanks very much. And hopefully we'll catch up again soon.
00:57:07
Speaker
Well, with that, I'd like to wrap up this week's episode. To all the listeners, thank you very much for joining in and listening. We'll be back next week with another very interesting guest.
00:57:19
Speaker
Until then, keep on driving. Thank you for joining us on today's journey. Please remember to like and subscribe to The Auto Ethnographer and leave us a rating or comment. For more information, visit our website at auto-ethnographer.com.
00:57:34
Speaker
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