Audi 2009 Annual Report Download - page 123

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… the decisive argument for buying a premium product.
Standing out from the crowd, having to adhere only to
your own style – those are powerful motivations of our
customers. Your very own personal expression, your own
fingerprint, will continue to gain in importance.
In ever-growing social networks traditional status symbols
are losing much of their allure. Substance is regaining its
importance. In the future, value-added will mean this: re-
sponses to my very individual requirements. Solutions for
my life that make my crowded timetable less stressful. Per-
sonal contacts who know where I’m coming from and – even
more importantly – where I want to go. Our new models
have been designed with a focus on the Audi driver’s person-
ality. For styling the interior of the A1, for example, cus-
tomers have a wide range of options for customizing their
car. And after buying the car, they can still get the latest up-
dates for the infotainment system. In the new Audi A8 as
““Individuality to me is ……
Precision is vital on the Hahnenkamm. A particular contri-
bution is made by the drivers of the snow cats, who do
their job even in inaccessible areas and thus provide the
groundwork for deciding who wins and loses. If snow then
falls on the resulting hard-packed surface, up to 200 peo-
ple set about clearing it again and restoring it to its origi-
nal state. Michael Huber’s own work in preparing for the
few days of competition takes months. “It’s a wonderful
feeling when the work is done and the races start,” he says.
“But I really can’t breathe easy again until the last racer
has crossed the finish line.” World-class skiers complete
the 3.3-kilometer run in less than two minutes.
Speed is not important to Roberto Bionda. He lives in the
northernmost tip of Piedmont, above the west bank of
Lake Maggiore. If you want to visit him at his workplace in
his little village of Bee, you have to leave the lakeshore
route to wind your way ever higher up on a mountain road
past breathtaking vistas and through the villages of
Cresseglio and Arizzano. What has influenced the character
of this area ever since antiquity is an elegant sort of stone
known as Beola, either white or gray, which is quarried
nearby. Here in Piedmont entire houses, chapels, wayside
shrines, fountains and bridges are built of Beola. For
Roberto Bionda this remarkable stone has become his life’s
work. He is one of the few remaining craftsmen who tile
entire roofs with Beola. “Virtually nobody still masters the
ancient technique of our forefathers,” he says. Beola has
become expensive as the present demand for the natural
building material of this region has become global. And
above all, the craft Roberto Bionda has chosen is very hard
work: A single stone weighs up to 50 kilograms, and a
Beola roof is eight times heavier than a modern tile roof.
Bionda has to lug such loads up to the roof truss, where
he installs the tiles on massive beams. Such Beola tiles are
four centimeters thick and they are kept in place on the
roof just by their own weight. “This work has remained ex-
actly the same as it was 1,000 years ago,” says Bionda. He
splits the enormous chunks of stone from the quarries with
a hammer and chisel – pure manual labor. “Even as chil-
dren we used to take my father’s tools and chisel toys out
of the stone,” Bionda recalls.
Today his craftsmanship is particularly in demand
for the renovation of historic buildings. Beola stone re-
mains intact for centuries and withstands Piedmont’s
sunshine and autumnal storms for generations. Roberto
Bionda devoted his entire passion to his own house:
He chose the precious Beola stone not only for his roof, but
also for the stairs, floors and even the balcony.
And of course he shaped all the stones himself with a ham-
mer and chisel, just the way they’ve been doing
it in Piedmont since antiquity.
Photo: AUDI AG
well as in the Audi A7, which we will be launching in 2010,
the interior virtually becomes your very own living room. The
navigation system plus with speech recognition system can
connect to the Internet via Bluetooth telephone, and uses a
wide range of information from Google and Google Maps to
let you find what you’re really looking for. The revolutionary
“MMI touch” operating system, available as an option, lets
you activate functions in your own handwriting. Even in our
after-sales service we follow individual routes: In the future,
our employees will be available wherever our customers
need us – with an extensive range of services. Our cars are in-
dividualists – just like our customers. Our service must give
our customers what is probably the most precious personal
possession of all: time.”
Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management for
Marketing and Sales, AUDI AG