Volkswagen

Comment on Piech’s neglect in not telling the board about Porsche buying Volkswagen shares. What is the significance of this event? During a Volkswagen supervisory meeting on April 19,2006, some of the board members asked for the reason on the dramatically changes on the price of Volkswagen shares. Unfortunately, there was no answer on this matter. Piech was the one who know about Porsche buying Volkswagen shares and purposely not informed to the board members of Volkswagen. The price of shares increased was due to Porsche keep buying the Volkswagen shares.

Piech stated that he kept quiet on the increasing of the price of Volkswagen shares because he did not want the price of Volkswagen shares to increase much more higher. It is unethical behavior that done by Piech. Piech should inform the board members of Volkswagen as they can find a strategy to prevent the share price grows up abnormally. The board members have the right to be well informed on the reason of changes on the shares price. The significance of this event is the drastically increase in the price of Volkswagen shares.

Porsche tends to buy the Volkswagen shares as much as possible in order to increase the price of Volkswagen shares. Porsche would like to increase the price of Volkswagen shares in order to direct the Volkswagen shareholders that Porsche want to takeover Volkswagen. It then makes sense to the public that Porsche want the share of Volkswagen. From here, Porsche shorted huge amounts of Volkswagen shares by borrowing from the existing owners. Then, Porsche started to sell it to earn the money and buy back the shares when the price dropped.

Explain what is novel and distinctive about the VW model The Volkswagen model is novel and distinctive by 3 concepts which I’ll define below. First, the concept of the « 28,8 hour working week » which basically replaced the former concept «  To save labor costs layoffs are inevitable » Indeed, by keep the same wages while cutting the working hours of their employees innovates. Therefore, they are able to save 20% of the annual costs with this method. That allows the board of volkswagen to meet the requirements of the works council which were among other things to remain with the same wages. Besides, concerning the job ecurity, as far as some workers are concerned by the temporary works, that would be able in that case to transfer from one plant to another. Obviously, the suitability regarding the new plant would be carefully reviewed case by case according to their competencies and experience. As a matter of fact, the workers will not be able to decline an offer for an other job if it fits them. This has been also agreed by the collective bargaining agreement. Moreover, Volkswagen distributed all annual special payments to its workers. The change to the « 28,8 hour working week » also shifted the numbers of the working days.

Indeed, most employees switched to four day working week while regarding the needs of departments some switched from three to five day working week. The second new element is the « contract » between the newcomers in the market, that is to say the young people and the old ones. Indeed while being still at school in apprenticeship, the young generation of future workers would be offered the possibitlity to get into the world of labour step by step until reaching the final stage which would be a full-employment within volkswagen. Nonetheless, they will have the conditions of the part time work.

Whereas, the situation is the reverse for the old generation, hence, as soon they reach 56 they can already reduce their working time and even more when they will get to their 59. So, their schedule can be reduced to 24 hours at 56 and 20 at 59. Even if Volkswagen still got to improve some points to make this measure more attractive, this aims to soflty replace the older generation and give full-employment to the young generation. This also supposed to rise the productivity. That leads us to our third element, the qualification element. Volkswagen wants their workers to e as competitive as possible and meet 4 main characteristics, To be multiskilled and mutli- functional; mobile;creative and human. To reach their goal their They target single employees from 18 to 30 and they train trough programmes to make them fulfill to the The needs of the company which are the flexibility and a « highly-skilled workforce » which result to a win win situation for both as during this time Volkswagen is receiving governmental subsidy while train the future « high manpower standard ». secure the job for the employee and gives Volkswagen a rising productivity

A Volkswagen Beetle achieved a top speed of more than 205mph during a proving run in Utah this week. It’s now officially the fastest Beetle ever, but you can’t buy it.

That’s because nearly everything on the car, from the suspension to the engine, is highly modified. In order for the engine to deliver enough power to break 200mph, an aftermarket tuning company added new turbochargers, pistons, camshafts and connecting rods. The interior was also stripped out to make room for a roll cage, a racing driver’s seat and a pair of parachutes for braking.

The record-shattering run took place at the Bonneville Salt Flats, which has a long history as a proving ground for setting land speed records. Its slick surface required the Beetle to be outfitted with special wheels and a limited-slip differential to boost traction.

“We had enough power to go even faster if the salt hadn’t been so sketchy,” driver Preston Lerner said in a .

Volkswagen Senior Vice President Hendrick Muth admitted that “the Beetle is not the most aerodynamic car in our portfolio, so running 205mph is a testament to the power that can be made from the EA888 TSI four-cylinder engine.”

Even though the record-setting car isn’t for sale, Volkswagen offers something close if you really want a fast Beetle. The Beetle R-Line has 210 horsepower and 207 pound-feet of torque, which let it accelerate from 0 to 60mph in 6.6 seconds. That’s not Ferrari-fast, but it is impressive for a car with such humble origins.