By his own admission, Steffen Knapp’s tenure in India has been “an extremely intense period”.

And by saying so, the Director of Volkswagen Passenger Cars India is driving home the point that there are a lot of things to learn in this diverse landscape.

“You have to look at new angles while understanding the team, dealers and culture. You need to read a lot and get a hold of the structure. You also need to find a way to get things moving,” explains Knapp.

He has been here for barely a year and is clearly soaking in every part of the experience which, in turn, is helping him set in place the new building blocks for VW. “You need to put in a lot of energy since everything is different for me,” admits Knapp.

For instance, while he is not “remotely hierarchical”, it is not the same for others. This means that people around seldom say no even if there is an issue. And when asked if everything is in control, the answer is generally a vociferous ‘Yes’!

Knapp believes it is important to call a spade a spade but has also understood that things are different in this part of the world. “The first thing I did was to elaborate to people here the rules of working together in terms of being accountable and so on. We need to get to understand each other,” he explains.

As Knapp says, the first three months in India for him were about learning, understanding and getting to know the system.

 

BL08Auto1Lead2

Steffen Knapp

 

 

Learning and strategising

The next three months were spent on defining a strategy and vision. “The good thing is that we have started January 2018 with clearly defined priorities in terms of where we want to go,” he adds.

The first of these priorities is ‘people’, where the key is to ensure that VW has the best with the smartest brains. As Knapp says, they should be driven enough to do a little bit more and run the extra mile. Interestingly, VW invited all HR managers from its dealers to a conference recently. From a layman’s perspective, HR is perhaps not important for dealers in the real sense since they change/add sales consultants in order to improve numbers.

But then, when there are 26 consultants sitting in a showroom that sells 500 cars each year, something clearly does not add up. And this is where the gaps need to be filled and HR becomes critical.

“For a premium brand like ours, we need to convey a different message to customers and they need to be surprised with the way we do it. A dealer is not producing a car but a service to customers,” says Knapp.

As part of the ‘people’ priority, VW’s Mumbai office has also introduced flexible timings like coming in and leaving early. Working out of home is also fine at times since it is “insane being stuck in Mumbai traffic” for hours on end. “Technology is everything today and I fully trust my people,” says Knapp.

Brand priority

The second priority is ‘brand’, which is VW’s biggest asset. While it is perceived as premium and synonymous with high-quality driving experience, it still needs to “come back stronger”. It did not take Knapp too long to figure out that India is huge and diverse with different languages, cultures, etc.

This meant appreciating the importance of regionalisation, which led to steering clear of language in the Ameo TV commercials. Today, it is just the visual and no audio, which is more than adequate to drive home the message.

The next part of regionalisation is the direct approach, which involves roadshows in Tier 3/4 cities since VW has no dealerships there. The Ameo is the ideal mascot for this drive since it is the Indian ambassador for VW.

Not only is the sedan category appealing to people in these centres, but Knapp believes it is important to showcase a product that is built, designed and sold only in India. “Regionalisation is an important step for us in terms of going local,” he says.

The third priority is the ‘corporate business’ since the focus thus far has been on private customers. There is no structured process for doctors, lawyers, architects and so on. The task on hand is to enhance offers to such buyers while building knowledge in dealerships on how to interact with them.

Digitisation

Digitisation is the next priority while improving tools in dealerships. During service, things need to be explained a lot more easily to assure a fully-integrated digital journey. The customer should know where their car is in the workshop.

The fifth priority is ‘network’, where dealers need to be treated as customers and not slaves. “At VW, where we do not have too many products, it is even more important to treat them well,” says Knapp. Finally, comes ‘loyalty’ as the sixth priority, which means focussing on customers and making sure they are happy and “come back to us”.

“We cannot afford to lose customers in a market like this, which is competitive and goes for novelty in a big way. They need a good reason to buy a VW and this means we should constantly think of ideas,” he adds.

Within the VW team, there is a greater sense of convergence on the road ahead, which was not the case earlier. Knapp also wants his people to think more and ask questions, especially when they are so talented. What is missing sometimes is identifying issues and bringing the core essence to the table.

“I want to drive this change since people are clever but this requires a level of motivation and self-responsibility along with accountability. It is not enough to just do something though change takes time since people need to become confident,” he says.

Small steps

Going forward, VW aspires to have a three per cent market share, up from 1.5 per cent, by 2025. This target may be small but still ambitious since it requires a fundamental change “in the way we do business today”.

Knapp is also candid enough to admit that there are people in India who do not know the VW brand even while it has been around for a decade. Hence, the urgency to focus on these six priorities even while group company, Skoda, is leading the India 2.0 turnaround project for the VW group, which hopefully should get the green signal soon.

“We need to set a base and strengthen it to prepare for the future in terms of people and processes. The hunger and performance-orientation should be pushed harder to ensure that there is no complacency,” declares Knapp.

comment COMMENT NOW