家族势力继续把持全球汽车巨头

    近期披露的一则内部消息成了汽车业的不和谐音，它提醒我们：全球多数汽车巨头中为数众多的一部分仍由家族势力掌控大权。

    大众汽车公司（VW）监事会主席费迪南•皮耶近期宣布，他计划在现职上再留任五到七年，而他的嫡系门徒、公司董事会主席马丁?文德恩也有此计划。鉴于大众近年来管理有方，业绩蒸蒸日上，这个消息也并不让人有多惊讶——只不过皮耶已年届75岁，文德恩也有65岁了，而这个决定显然事前并未和董事会成员或股东有过任何沟通。

    不过，日后皮耶在事关大众的决策上再也不用有所顾忌了。今年，大众汽车收购了由皮耶-保时捷家族控制的保时捷公司（Porsche）后，保时捷拥有了大众汽车50.7%的普通股。自去年夏天皮耶让妻子进入大众汽车监事会以来，皮耶和保时捷家族的成员现在在管理层的10个席位中已经占据了5席。

    大众汽车现在是欧洲唯一一家能盈利的量产车企，而且正在大步迈向全球最大车企的宝座，因此公司的非家族股东对上述局面也没什么可抱怨的。但对其他由家族掌控的车企来说，情况就未必如此了。

    A recent disclosure came as jarring reminder that -- at a surprising number of the world's most prominent automakers -- family come first.

    Ferdinand Piech, chairman of Volkswagen's supervisory board, announced that he was planning to remain on the job for another five to seven years, and that his protégé, Martin Winterkorn, chairman of the management board, would do the same. That wouldn't have been so surprising since VW has enjoyed a very successful run lately -- except that Piech is 75 years old, and Winterkorn is 65, and the decision had apparently been reached with no prior discussion with any other board members or shareholders.

    But then Piech seldom has to look any further than a mirror when making a decision about VW. Following this year's acquisition of Porsche, which is controlled by the Piech-Porsche family, Porsche owns 50.7% of VW's common stock. Since Piech appointed his wife to the VW supervisory board last summer, members of the Piech and Porsche families now control five of the ten management seats.

    With VW the only profitable volume manufacturer in Europe and headed toward becoming?the largest auto company in the world, its non-family shareholders have little to complain about. The same can't always be said of other family-run automakers.