New technologies, new products, new competitors, new customers, new rules: Lutz Meschke, Board Member for Finance/IT and Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, on transformation in turbulent times – and why he doesn’t want to abandon a 15% profit-margin target.
Mr Meschke, Porsche has stated that it is developing from a sports car manufacturer into a provider of sporty mobility. When will you stop building cars altogether?
Ferry Porsche, the man who founded our company just over 70 years ago once said, “The last car ever built will be a sports car.” And I hope it will be a Porsche.
What is the difference between sports cars and sporty mobility?
Primarily that we have more to offer than just extraordinary vehicles. For most people, mobility just means driving. But in reality it is much more than that. In the future, we will accompany customers throughout their daily lives – everything to do with the digital life style with products that typify Porsche. The core of Porsche 360+ is a personal lifestyle assistant that is at the customer’s disposal around the clock. It will simplify daily life and enable exclusive experiences.
A beautiful new Porsche world?
Our world! It is characterised not only by a rising demand for mobility, but also an increasingly diverse range of forms of mobility. We are experiencing an evolution of mobility. Digitalisation, electrification, connectivity – it’s all happening in sync and at full speed, so to speak. And it’s not only us who are undergoing a deep transformation. The entire automotive industry is moving toward the technology and IT sectors to some extent.
What does that mean for Porsche?
Nothing is unaffected. It starts with the mentality: over many years, we’ve enlarged and refined our model ranges, perfected the vehicle technology, continuously improved our production mechanisms and adapted our sales activities to changing customer desires. We did what we has always been our forte: developing and building exclusive sports cars. We went from success to success, on all levels: sales, profits, employees. But everything we did was always close to our traditional core business. That won’t be enough in the long run.
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SOURCE: Porsche
