By Ted Fullerton, May 16, 2025
At Volkswagen’s recent virtual annual meeting, the façade of corporate unity began to crack, revealing a deeper rot beneath the polished surface of Europe’s most iconic carmaker. Shareholders, weary and increasingly disillusioned, voiced scathing criticism of the company’s governance—a structure long captured by a dynastic elite that has fused bloodline and boardroom into a singular machinery of control.
At the heart of the unrest is Oliver Blume, who holds the reins of both Volkswagen and Porsche AG—a concentration of power that investors denounce as emblematic of a system designed not for innovation or accountability, but for the preservation of privilege. The Porsche and Piech families, through their holding firm, maintain near-absolute authority over Volkswagen, ruling with the impunity of medieval landlords. It is not the market that dictates VW’s future, critics say, but the unassailable grip of inherited power.
The Market Speaks, the Board Ignores
Shareholder voices, often muted by the machinery of public relations, rose with rare clarity. “Highly problematic,” said one. “Grave damage to reputation,” warned another. Behind their words lies a deeper indictment: a culture of secrecy, stagnation, and self-dealing that sacrifices long-term vision for short-term preservation of power. As VW’s share price tumbles down nearly 25% in a year, its leadership blames high costs and market conditions, refusing to confront the more uncomfortable truth: that the company is adrift, lacking credible leadership in the transformative age of electrification and digitalisation.
A Company Adrift in a Changing World
In China, in Europe, in the U.S., VW is bleeding—haemorrhaging relevance and capital. Yet still, the old guard clings to its fiefdom. Wolfgang Porsche, patriarch and powerbroker, dismisses the governance crisis as a distraction. The real problem, he insists, lies elsewhere. But this denial is the hallmark of all declining empires: a refusal to see that the fortress they built for protection has become a prison.
The system, in its current form, is unsustainable. Power has replaced innovation. Control has replaced vision. And unless Volkswagen breaks from the feudalism of its corporate past, it will continue its slow march toward irrelevance—not just in markets, but in meaning.