Audi 2015 Annual Report Download - page 19

Mr. Keese, you spent half a year in Silicon Valley discovering
how start-ups and digital giants from Palo Alto to San
Francisco are creating both innovation and disruption.
What is the next big thing that awaits us ?
KEESE : You need to be in the right place, especially in the vir-
tual world. If you’re where innovations are launched, you soon
fi nd out what you should be investing in. If you’re in the wrong
place, you’ll be behind the game. Consider this : Californians no
longer believe in production, they believe in data aggregation.
They are inventing and developing platforms. That makes them
disruptive.
What makes Silicon Valley’s innovators so strong – is it really
just down to high risk and fl at hierarchies ?
KEESE : Take Palantir, for example – a big data specialist
from Palo Alto. Nothing inherently spectacular in that. But
this innovator is run by just four managers. The remaining
, employees all have the same rank and title : Forward
Deployed Engineer. A made-up label. The employees are con-
stantly re organizing themselves project by project, and that en-
ables them to analyze myriads of data incredibly fast. So success
certainly isn’t a question of hierarchy. STADLER : Bureaucracy
paralyzes progress. We’ve recognized that, which is why we
quickly need to break down hierarchies. That was one reason why
we established our Audi Innovation Research (AIR) think tank in
San Francisco in  : to develop new, innovative technologies
faster and permanently expand our network in Silicon Valley.
But the start-ups there are simply more venturesome than we
are ; less bureaucracy gives them more speed.
Mr. Keese, were you able to sense that speed ?
KEESE : People who launch start-ups have an idea on Saturday,
start writing the code on Sunday, pitch for risk capital on
Monday, and six weeks later the product is on the market.
An impressive feat that refl ects incredible resolve.
And it came as a bit of a surprise to you. You traveled to
Silicon Valley with the classic business attire of suit and tie,
and soon realized that it doesn’t go down too well there.
KEESE : My suit very rapidly became redundant. First it was fold-
ed away in my case, then hung in my closet. But I didn’t need
it once. Apart from a few investors, nobody wears one there.
Wouldn’t that be absolutely taboo in German industrial
enterprises ?
STADLER : We still have quite a hierarchical mindset and need
to learn that there’s a faster and more fl exible way that’s just as
responsible. But fi rst we need to overcome our fear of change.
It’s questionable whether we’ll manage that. But even if we
do, we Germans aren’t exactly thought of as risk-takers.
KEESE :
Sadly, no. Even though we’re the successors of pioneers
who took big risks. Most car manufacturers started out by
causing disruption when they took on horse-drawn carriages
with their motorized versions. We need to reactivate that
spirit of risk-taking.
PROF. RUPERT STADLER
Born in 1963. Chairman of the
Board of Management of AUDI AG.
A graduate in business administra-
tion, he joined Audi in 1990, work-
ing in Controlling for
Marketing
and
Sales . In 1994 he was appoint-
ed
Commercial Director of Volks-
wagen/Audi España S.A. in Barcelona. Rupert Stadler became
Head of the Board of Management’s O ce for Volkswagen AG
in 1997, and additionally Head of Group Product Planning
starting in 2002. He joined the Board of Management of
AUDI AG in 2003 and has been its Chairman since 2007.
Stadler was also appointed to the Board of Management of
Volkswagen AG in 2010. He lives in Ingolstadt with his wife
Angelika and has three children.
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