WARNING: LONG
A well known fact for BMW's success in the past decade is Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle. He should have become CEO a few years ago. Because of his vision and passion for cars, the fantastic 850CSi and the current 400bhp M5 ( his dream car ) have become two of BMW's greatest achievements. He's a stickler for quality and when he worked for BMW he is supposedly the one to have kept Chris Bangle's mad designs on a tight leash. Now, he's going to be the CEO of a forklift company, for goodness sake!!! How can people let such a valuable person get away from the auto industry, let alone BMW? Why the hell doesn't BMW re-hire him and make him CEO so that we, customers and fans, can once again be happy? Here's some background on the good doctor. Below, an interesting article about him from Automobile Magazine's August 2002 issue about his departure from Ford. From BMW to Ford to Forklifts.
BIOGRAPHY:
"Dr.-Ing Wolfgang Reitzle is currently President of Ford's Premier Automotive Group and Chairman, Jaguar Cars.
Born in Germany in 1949, he studied Mechanical Engineering at Munich Technical University, receiving his Doctorate in Engineering in 1974. He continued his studies in Labour and Business Economics at the university before going to work for BMW AG in Munich in 1976.
Having gained experience in a number of functions including product development, technology and production, Reitzle rose to become Head of Product Development in 1985. He completed the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School in 1984.
In July 1987 he became Member of the Board of Management, Research and Development of BMW AG, and assumed additional responsibility for purchasing in 1993. Dr.-Ing Reitzle served as Chairman of Rover Group from October 1995 to March 1997.
In March 1998 he became a member of the Board of Management, Market and Product of BMW AG. He resigned from BMW in February 1999.
Dr.-Ing Reitzle was appointed first as Group Vice President and subsequently became President of Ford's Premier Automotive Group."
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AUTOMOBILE MAGAZINE AUGUST 2002
"LAST REITZLE -- Why did consummate car man Wolfgang Reitzle leave Ford's Premier Automotive Group for a forklift manufacturer?" By Georg Kacher
Christmas 2001, a break at last. Wolfgang Reitzle, the boss of Ford's Premier Automotive Group (PAG) needed it -- he was almost running on empty, desperate for a quick recharge, the crazy pace beginning to take its toll. Reitzle and his wife, Nina, decided finally to take a belated honeymoon; This two-week vacation to the Caribbean would be their first real getaway since Reitzle joined Ford in 1999. But even under the warm sun, Dearborn kept catching up with him, over the telephone and via e-mail. His responsibility to make high-level decisions, to be on the alert, to maintain the momentum, never ceased. "During those two weeks, I repeatedly asked myself whether I wanted to keep tilting at windmills for the rest of my career," recalls Reitzle. "During the last three years, I was constantly on the road or on the plane, my schedule curtailed what little private life there was left, and when I eventually did come home, it was never for more than two days in a row." Too soon, his literal honeymoon was over, and Reitzle flew to America for the press days of the Detroit auto show. It was there that the figurative honeymoon with PAG ended as well. Upon his arrival in Detroit, Reitzle concluded that his life had to change, but he did not know in which direction he'd send it.
Outspoken, ambitious, and nonconformist, Reitzle was at loggerheads from the start with the introverted, bonus-driven, and seniority-oriented mind-set that is typical of Detroit. Hired by former Ford president and CEO Jacques Nasser, he watched his mentor rise--and then stagger, stumble, and fall. And seeing Sir Nick Scheele succeed Nasser must have given Reitzle pause. "There was never open animosity, never a direct personal confrontation between me and Scheele," states Reitzle. "But we certainly did not have the same open relationship I developed with [current chairman and CEO] Bill Ford and [global product development head] Richard Parry-Jones, and whatever relationship we had took the wrong tun when Nick moved from Europe to Detroit."
Although temporarily of similar rank, Scheele and Reitzle were always worlds apart in terms of their professional priorities and their managerial strengths. Scheele is a Ford veteran, a team player, and a master tactician. He is a man who has worked at all levels, a product guy as much as a marketer. By contrast, Reitzle can be impatient and occasionally ruthless with people, but his vision and his knowledge of cars are second only to those of former Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piech. Predictably, Scheele and Reitzle clashed repeatedly, almost always over cost issues: Reitzle wanted to spend money to knock PAG into shape, and Scheele believed the company couldn't afford it.
In less than three years, Reitzle had turned PAG from a batch of five loosely linked companies into one astonishingly tight business unit. He did sterling work at Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo; he had great ideas for Lincoln; and, eventually, he might even have orchestrated a turnaround at Mercury. At Aston, he teamed up with his old friend Ulrich Bez and created a smart, single-platform strategy for the next-generation DB7, the V12 Vanquish, and the upcoming DB5. At Land Rover, he helped define the replacements for the Discovery and the Defender, supported a new baby Range Rover, and blazed a trail for the second-generation Freelander. At Jaguar, he signed off on the lightweight XK replacement and was about to switch the follow-up to the S-type and the X-type to an advanced new aluminum spaceframe structure. Critics fear that the first task of new PAG chief Mark Fields will be to rescind this spaceframe strategy in favor of conventional steel unibody structures for the S- and X-types, a move that would initially save money but may cost Jag precious brand image in the long run.
At Volvo, Reitzle supported a close cooperation with Ford when it came to creating the next generation of small and mid-size models. he also decided to extend the life of the P2 platform for the V70/S80 replacements and a new flagship model. In addition, Reitzle initiated the development of a new family of upmarket engines to be shared by most PAG brands. Furthermore, he encouraged Volvo to lead all Ford brands in active and passive safety. These moves were, in most cases, backed by solid product proposals and airtight business cases. The watchdogs in Dearborn may not have approved of every little detail, but the overall strategies for Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo were bulletproof. The recue plan for Lincoln and Mercury, on the other hand, didn't quite work out the way Reitzle had envisioned.
In the beginning, Reitzle had pitched five all-new Lincoln models: a rear-wheel drive BMW 3-Series fighter, the so-called CTU (cross-trainer utility), a large rear-wheel-drive coupe, a flagship sedan, and a full-size four-door convertible derived from it. The initial investment required to get this program started was $1.7 billion according to an early status plan obtained by this magazine. In the end, Dearborn okayed a paltry $700 million--barely enough to fund a face lift for the aging LS and barely enough to add the CTU, which sits on a four-wheel-drive version of the LS chassis.
Still, the revised Lincoln plan looks inspired compared with Mercury's. The semi-luxury division will be a repository of badge engineering: Mercury gets versions of the CTU and Ford's new VW Passat-size sedan. There will also be a new Mystique sedan, based on the new Mazda 6, and, possible, a Mustang-derived replacement for the current Cougar. Not exactly stuff that makes the adrenaline surge.
When it became clear that Dearborn would try to keep a tighter lid on the PAG portfolio and the relating spending plan, Reitzle approached Bill Ford and explained the situation. One way out of this dilemma would have been to put the PAG chief in charge of all development-related passenger-car activites, thus elevating him to board level. An enticing thought--but what if Scheele, who oversees Ford's global production activites, did not play along? The two men never had an on-the-record argument, nor was there an official veto on the table, but it quickly dawned on Reitzle that he was about to be given the short end of the stick. "It's a terrific deal--but only as long as you have full responsibility from the drawing board all the way to the factory gates," he says. "Final assembly is a particularly critical link in this process. You either control it, or you run the risk of having to take the blame for almost anything that goes wrong, from poor quality to slow ramp-up to inadequate volume. I could almost hear them say, 'That Reitzle guy has given us another car that is totally impossible to produce.' If they can pin too many troublemaking underperformers to your sleeve within a short period of time, you are a dead man in that company."
Between early January and late March of this year, the situation became increasingly uncomfortable for PAG's top man. The powers in Dearborn had begun to increase the pressure on PAG's Berkeley Square headquarters, something that didn't go unnoticed by the competition. After carefully monitoring the situation for several weeks, General Motors North America chariman Bob Lutz picked up the phone and placed a call to Europe. Although neither side will officially admit it, multiple sources confirm that Lutz offered Reitzle a chance to jump ship. In the first step of this proposed defection to GM, Reitzle would have been asked to run Opel and Saab and, sometime later, possibly Fiat. Apparently, Lutz had cleared this issue with Mike Burns (who is currently in charge of GM of Europe) before he approached Reitzle. In the course of the preliminary talks, it became clear that GM intends to take over Fiat this summer. In a second step, Reitzle would have had the opportunity to succeed Lutz in 2004. An offer too good to refuse? Moneywise, this was certainly a rare gold mine. But from an entrepreneurial point of view, GM simply was too close to Ford--too close in character, too close in location, too close in stucture. It would have been the same job all over again, only with less prestigious brands, a less familiar organization, and a less promising long-term outlook. So, on April 15, Reitzle called Lutz and declined.
By then, Reitzle's deal to become the head man at Linde--a German company that manufactures, among other things, forklifts--was almost complete. Why Linde? "At some stage, you have to make up your mind about what you want to achieve in life," explains Reitzle. "I decided that what I really want to do is run a company. I'd rather be captain on a destroyer than first officer on an aircraft carrier. Being in charge at top level is something I have not done before. Linde had first approached me when I was about to leave BMW, and they approached me again late last year. It is a strong performer with a big potential for further growth." He pauses and smiles. "And it is headquartered in Germany, only a four-hour drive away from Munich, where my wife works." So moving to Detroit would have been out of the question? "Not at all. If the job description had been what I was hoping for, we might have moved to Michigan together."
The bait dangled by GM and Linde forced Ford to rethink its options. If the company wanted to keep Reitzle, it had to put a better offer on the table. A new proposal was mapped out, but it could not guarantee what Reitzle wanted, which was the CEO job. In their last meeting on April 16, Bill Ford asked Reitzle to have patience until the end of this year, when an adequate solution would be found. But it was too late: One day later, the PAG chief announced his resignation.
"I look forward to the new challenge, but there is no question that I am going to miss working with cars," Reitzle says. What are the chances of a comeback? "If this works out the way I expect it will, the remainder of my career is spoken for." But if it isn't, we can think of a few interesting alternatives. One revolves around GM, which was kind enough to extend its generous offer until April 2004. The other option would be to return to Ford, where David Thursfield is tipped to relinquish the throne at Ford of Europe to run international operations from Detroit--perhaps even from an office next to Scheele's--starting this summer. Thursfield's place at Ford of Europe has been secured by Martin Leach, a bright, hands-on engineer whose departure will leave a big hole on the R&D front. With his allies moving up the ranks, Reitzle may find it relatively easy to stage a comeback. Whatever happens, he will definitely stay in touch with the Blue Oval through a consultancy contract will Bill Ford. The two men are due to meet ten times a year for the next two years.
"I'll keep connected," promises Reitzle, trying to look cool and detached. But doesn't this industry move much too fast to let somebody who has been out back in again? "In principle, yes, yet I think that after a two-year leave, it should take no more than three months to adopt the old rhythm." Meanwhile, the German press suggests that Reitzle, with a little help from Deutsche Bank (which is pulling the strings both at Linde and at DiamlerChrysler), may someday take over from Mercedes Benz chief Jurgen Hubbert or DaimlerChrysler chairman Jurgen Schrempp. Those in the know deny such rumors, however. Says one of Reitzle's long-time aides and confidantes: "For Wolfgang, it's either General Motors or Ford--or forklifts--until the day he retires."
Wolfgang Reitzle: The ONLY Man who should be BMW's next CEO, ridding us of Bangle!
Bravo!
I blame BMWs board and management as much as I do Bangle. 
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