The jury at the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce justified its decision by writing down that "the Porsche Slovenija company, with 94 employees and a network of 38 authorized sales agents, managed to increase its market share in 2012 despite a registered 16 percent decline in Slovenia's car market. Its financial results are fantastic, as the added value of each employee is four times higher than in other automobile companies, while the income of employees stands at around EUR 2,76m".
Despite the fact that you have the name of our country, Slovenija, in the official company name, you still are an international company with a two-member leadership team. Apart from the Austrian representative from the umbrella company, you once said for yourself that you were probably the most German-like Slovene. In the car brand leadership team you also have a Czech. I presume this multiculturalism positively affects your work, the flow of ideas, and the way you approach the realization of your goals?
That part about me being a German-like Slovene was once said as a joke by a business partner from Volkswagen - it wasn't my statement. In general I consider differences or boldness, and the acceptance of new ideas and approaches as something positive for every organisation.
It isn't necessarily connected to nationalities, it more depends on the individual and business culture – could we consider things in a different way, could we take another path? One of our biggest advantages is perhaps our powerful base of joint values. As individuals, we function in a very democratic, and at the same time responsible way. I think that within our company, there is a rather high degree of identification with this kind of management.
What about your personal experience? You were educated abroad, you started your career abroad… Does that help you in this Slovene surrounding, or do you maybe wish that we were also more "German"?
Apart from me there are a number of other colleagues who also lived for quite some time in Germany. We were perhaps drawn together by a wish for order, trustworthiness, predictability, and so it isn't a coincidence that we found ourselves here.
Of course that experience does help, especially in these current circumstances, when one has the feeling that Slovenia is everything but in order. But probably that's also why it is ever more difficult for us to accept these conditions. It's relatively clear what needs to be done, but it's simply never done…
You like to point out that a guarantee for success is having the right people at the right places. Do you think we have enough of the right people in Slovenia? And of course with that I'm not referring to the all too often division of people according to their party affiliation.
Ah yes, those divisions were artificially designed with one clear goal - to allow the undisturbed profit of small efficient groups. They've divided our little nation and every now and again continue to fuel it with comments about our recent history, which shouldn't be of interest to anyone anymore – but it obviously still works and people still fall for that stuff.
Yes, I do think that in Slovenia we have enough good and hard-working people, which know how to create. However we lack good leaders. Leaders which would take care for more than just themselves.
Until recently Slovenian were considered as good car buyers, with a desire for car brilliance and ready to give up on other things in order to have the right car in front of their houses. However in the two decades, in which your company has been present on the Slovenian market, many things have changed. According to you, which are the key turning points, which marked the sale of cars in Slovenia?
After gaining independence, Slovenia's consumers had quite a lot to make up for. After the first period of uncertainty (1992 was the worst year to date - a little less than 33.000 registered personal vehicles) things started to grow continuously until 1999. That's when we introduced the VAT tax and reached the highest number of new car registrations - 78.500 personal vehicles. Those were surely the best times for those in the car market. Sales were good, profits were good, and new buildings were being constructed.
After that the market understandably quieted down i.e. normalized. Entering the EU, the Block Exemption Regulation set new foundations for the relations between factories, importers and salesmen. That's also when the practice of one-day vehicle registrations and exporting those vehicles to other markets started – a completely absurd occurrence, which still takes place today and is part of our everyday work.
Despite that until 2008 you could live well from the automobile business. However starting from 2009 the crisis hit us bad, just as other businesses, and the market is still in decline. In 2013 the real market – meaning without one-day registrations – amounted to a good 37.000 personal vehicles, so you could say that we're back where we started from…
In some reports from more than ten years ago, an analysis of the Slovenian car market showed that it would be the only one of the new markets in the European Union, to have its fleet of vehicles renewed, but not substantially increased. According to you what's the realistic yearly sale of cars in the Slovenian market, and what's the market share of Volkswagen with its products?
I can give you the exact figures for 2013: if we look at personal vehicles, the »official« market recorded 49.600 vehicles, realistically though the figure is 25 % less, meaning 37.400 vehicles. Porsche Slovenija with all its brands pulled away around 26% in both cases. That means that on the artificial scale we're there where we are on the realistic one as well. We don't want to be the »špilverderberji« (spoilsports). Our medium-term ambitions are to cover a third of the market…