The …show more content…
In fact, its corporate structure looks like General Motors in 1920-1970’s, i.e. (citation) VW can easily be compared to what was once the largest and the most profitable corporation in the world. The company is not in a danger that someone will copy or imitate its structure. Most of the competitors are not aware of their methods of work. Moreover, according to the traditional scale of business schools VW can be determined something like a productive madman. Globally, there are a shocking amount of 549,300 people working on the Group.(citation) Fortune magazine put them on the eighth place in the list of the world's largest employers behind giants such as Walmart and Chinese postal service. VW has the same number of staff as General Motors (213,000), Ford (164,000) and Fiat-Chrysler (197,000) combined all together. Meanwhile, three of the above monsters manufactured 19 million cars last year whereas VW released "only" 8.5 …show more content…
During 60’s GM had more than 700,000 employees, extreme vertical integration and the biggest profits in the world. Vaunted GM President Alfred Sloan, who ran the company from 1923 to 1956, has always fought against the central management. He kept General Motors decentralized until his retirement. Then the company opened their doors to graduates of business schools. They immediately embarked on the policy of efficiency and collaboration and since then the company has been rolling downhill. The principle of top-down and the command-administrative system fettered GM and continue to do it until now. Meanwhile, VW is controlled directly from Sloan's instructions and his corporate structure gives him an invaluable advantage. It does not matter to what extent competitors will streamline, reduce costs, attract third parties or create alliances; they will probably never overcome the strengths of VW. It is interesting how many competitors do know what they are fighting