Audi 2013 Annual Report Download - page 31

Audi achieved a new sales record in 2013, and FC Bayern
Munich is more successful than ever on the pitch.
Mr. Guardiola, Mr. Stadler, what is it like playing to win
as part of a strong team ?
GUARDIOLA : When the season kicks o, no coach or player
can guarantee success. And there isn’t a magic formula for
winning. If there were, soccer would be as straightforward as
going shopping in a huge mall : You’d just go in and choose
the item you like the most. Where would the challenge or excite-
ment be in that ? I didn’t win the Champions League straight
away. I started my career at Gimnàstic de Manresa, a club in
provincial Catalonia. STADLER:That takes me back to my boy-
hood days at my boarding school in Rebdorf, Bavaria, having a
kick-about on the sports ground. I tried my hand as a forward …
but let’s be honest : Anyone who thinks they are a born
champion is setting themselves up for a fall. That’s as true at
Audi as it is in the world of soccer. It’s the team that counts.
From development and production through to sales and com-
munications, we all have to pull together and have a clear vision
of our goal. That’s how you win.
People learn little from their victories, but a lot from
their defeats. How do you deal with setbacks ?
GUARDIOLA : Those are moments of great sadness for me.
As if the floodlights suddenly go out. Seeing Barcelona go out
against Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final in 2012
was such a moment. We were much better than our opponents,
but then conceded an unnecessary goal in the return leg, and
before we knew it we were out of the competition. That was a
really tough defeat for me. I felt like I could no longer reach
my team.
And was that what prompted you to leave Barcelona ?
GUARDIOLA : Yes. If you can no longer reach your players,
as a coach, the time has come to move on.
Mr. Stadler, have you ever had moments when you felt
like throwing in the towel ?
STADLER : Specifically when things aren’t running smoothly,
I try to turn the tables and play that crucial pass that
opens up the game again. As a top manager, I can’t simply
walk away from the game. It’s precisely then that you are
called upon to show determination and leadership. Never give
up … GUARDIOLA : … but leading a team takes huge amounts
of energy. In other words, there are times when you need
to recharge your batteries. That’s what I did in taking a sab-
batical in New York. It was important for me, for my family
and also for my former team.
Might your huge achievements with Barcelona simply
have interfered with your hunger for success ?
GUARDIOLA : We were incredibly successful. 14 titles
within the space of just four years meant it was the best
period in the club’s entire history. But it can also be a
curse. I found it increasingly dicult to motivate both myself
and my team. I’m sure it’s no dierent at a successful
company such as Audi.
Mr. Stadler, do you agree ?
STADLER: Success and responsibility are the biggest motivators
there are for my team and me. We have doubled Audi sales
over the past ten years. That’s a worthy run of successes,
almost comparable to Pep Guardiola’s 14 titles with Barca.
But every year your goal is to go one better than the previous
year. It’s as if the speedometer is reset to zero at the start of
the year. The incentive is to push it back up as high as possible.
GUARDIOLA : But in your case, that also means every year you
have the chance to set a new record. With Barcelona I’d already
won everything there was to win as player and coach of a
club side. And I noticed that the team was finding it increas-
ingly dicult.
So what motivated you to come to Munich, to a team
that had just won the Treble ?
GUARDIOLA : I first got into conversation with FC Bayern
Munich at the Audi Cup 2011. Over an espresso in the VIP
Lounge, I got chatting to Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and
Uli Hoeness about my career plans. Bayern’s current success
couldn’t yet be foreseen at that point. But the challenge
for me is specifically to coach a new team in FC Bayern Munich
and build on the success of my predecessor Jupp Heynckes.
Mr. Stadler, where are you planning to take your team ?
STADLER:To the top. We’ve already moved into the fast lane.
We now need to step on the gas to make Audi the top premium
brand worldwide.
How do you intend to overtake in the trac jam ?
In Europe, progress has ground to a crawl. In southern
countries, the sales figures are actually falling.
STADLER:At Audi, we have demonstrated how you can keep
moving forward. We are very well positioned worldwide.
And such a dicult phase for the economy also represents an
opportunity. If we manage to learn from past political and
economic mistakes, we won’t repeat them. That’s why I firmly
believe the worst is behind us in Europe.
Isn’t that just what your industry wants to believe ?
STADLER : No. I save my dreaming for night-time. We need
a healthy dose of realism. People keep underestimating
Europe’s economic potential. Europe is and remains our top
sales region. It’s the backbone of our global success. And
Europe has enormous cultural strength that stems from its
very diversity. We just need to harness that potential.
How do you propose to do that ? Can you give us a concrete
example ?
STADLER : We’ve been leading the way at Audi. We have brought
young people over from Spain and given them the opportunity
to learn with us here in Germany. At the moment we are doing
the same with promising young Italians. During my time in
Spain, I learned to appreciate the Spaniards as very creative
people. Germans, for their part, are good organizers. When you
bring such potential together, you get a winning combination.
FC Bayern Munich is a glowing example of that.
PHOTOS : Anke Luckmann
Fuel consumption and emission figures at the end of the Annual Report