Essay About Strategic Analysis Of Porsche And Strong Growth

Porsche Case Study
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Summary
1 | Introduction
Strong growth, solid benefit: For years Porsche has been driving on the fast track. While Opel,
Ford, VW and Mercedes need to cut jobs, the Swabians have the opportunity to create new jobs.
What is Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking doing differently? How does Wiedeking realize his
strategy? And why should a small and highly profitable maker of sports cars suddenly invest its
fortunes to a struggling mass-producer? That was the question that alarmed shareholders asked
on September 25th, 2005 when Porsche announced plans to buy a 20 % stake in Volkswagen,
Europes biggest carmaker. Today in January 2007, Porsche holds 27.4 % of VW stocks (wants an
increase to 29.9 %) and is the biggest VW shareholder.
2 | Presentation of the Group
The company’s history
The Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG is a German manufacturer of sports cars in the luxury segment
with his domicile in Stuttgart – Zuffenhausen, Germany. Porsche was founded as an engineering
office in 1931. Ferdinand Porsche gathered experience in the development of military vehicles
during the First World War and worked for a number of companies as a constructing engineer
(e. g. management board member and supervisor in the engineering office of the Daimler-Motor-
Association).
On December 1st, 1930 he opened his first engineering office, which transformed into
лDr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH, engineering and consultancy for engines and vehicle
constructionsЫ on April 25th, 1931. There his greatest successes were the construction of racing
cars for Auto Union and his major impact on the construction of Volkswagen.
In 1937 the legal form of organization changed into лprivate limited partnership (German: KG)Ы.
Between 1944 and 1950 the company evacuated the fabrication to Austria, where Ferry Porsche
constructed the first Porsche named the 356 Nr. 1 Roadster. Ferdinand Porsche’s son, Ferry
Porsche, took over his father’s chairmanship in 1947, while Ferdinand was in French
imprisonment. Ferry inherited half of the shares and built up the sports car company under the
trademark known today.
The daughter of Ferdinand Porsche, Louise PiД«ch, inherited the other half of the shares.
Her husband, Anton PiД«ch, was factory manager and director of the Volkswagen GmbH in
Wolfsburg, Germany during the Nazi regime.
Over time, the personal interaction of the family members and their management functions led
to controversy and family conflicts. Therefore in 1972, Ferry Porsche and Louise PiД«ch decided
for future generations that no family members were allowed to participate in the management
any more. The Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche KG was transformed into a corporation
(German: Aktiengesellschaft AG).
One of the founders’ grandsons, the young engineer Ferdinand Piīch, was forced to quit his
service for the development of Porsche and needed to found his own construction office.
Shortly