Topic > Volkswagen Case - 1181

Volkswagen was "burdened by bureaucracy" with Winterkorn being obsessive in making all decisions down to the corner of the windshield. Alternatively, Muller focuses only on “big picture” decisions and leaves those regarding individual products to those who are responsible for that particular product line. This move to a decentralized company contrasts with the strategy implemented by John Chambers at Cisco Systems who wanted to add bureaucracy; he achieved this by establishing “councils and councils” that made 70% of the decisions. The reasoning behind the strategy offers an explanation for why each CEO chose the path they took: Cisco was trying to enter many new markets and did not want to miss any opportunities, while Volkswagen needed to give employees the opportunity to act in the way “ just right” to remove tarnish from them