Lead, Follow, or Get the “H” out of the Way!!!
It’s that time of year when the overall results of 2018 have been reported and the first hints at 2019 are becoming known. On Friday March 15th, Porsche AG held their “Annual Press Conference”, always an interesting recap of the prior year. It revealed some pretty interesting data about the performance of the company and the brand.
Since we all have an interest in the success of the brand, I figured some highlights would be in order.
- 2018 brought record revenue and operating profit, growing by 16% and 4% respectively over 2017.
- Over 256,000 vehicles were delivered, an increase of over 10,000 units.
- China sales grew by 12% and Asia Pacific, combined with Africa and Middle East grew by 10%.
- By comparison, North American sales grew by only 4% and European sales fell by 4%.
- Macan is the highest in volume, representing 33% of unit sales followed by the Cayenne at 27%.
- Despite these demographic and geographic shifts, sales of the 911 and all sports cars in total grew double digits- even with the changeover to the 8th generation 911.
- Meanwhile Porsche AG is making high levels of investment in electrification of several future vehicle lines- a total of 6 billion Euros by 2022,
After reading the highlights of the press conference, my thoughts went back ten years to 2009, when I bought my first new Porsche. It was a complicated time for the financial world and for all car manufacturers. At the time, I thought that “my investment” in owning a Porsche was solid because the company had prospered while weathering lots of adversity in the 10 years prior to that. The switch from air to water cooled sports cars had been a strain, and many loyal customer thought that the brand was forever changed. The introduction of a “baby” sports car with the Boxster had to have been a huge decision as well. Then along came the Cayenne. If there was any question that the brand had changed with a water cooled 911, the argument was put to bed forever with the launch of the Cayenne. But what all this demonstrated to me at the time was foresight, flexibility, and the guts to make some extremely hard decisions during that decade.
Now, as I look back at the most recent ten years and forward to the next five, it makes the 1999-2009 decade appear to have been a simple time. The expansion of the brand to the point where 4-door vehicles represent over 60% of unit sales by adding first the Panamera and then the Macan, while simultaneously developing the world’s first hybrid supercar in the 918, would have been hard to imagine in 2009. And then to further invest in the 3-year LeMans winning 919 race program to prove the hybrid/electric future of the brand, seems in retrospect to have been marketing brilliance. Even further, to weather the financial strain and sun setting of the diesel platforms, while at the same time committing 6 billion Euros on an electrified future, demonstrates continuing vision, leadership and fortitude. And finally, to successfully accomplish all of this with key market location shifts, and changes in the core customer profile throughout the world, is simply staggering.
It all reminds of a bumper sticker (NO! not on a Porsche, please) that I saw years ago which read “Lead, Follow, or get the ‘heck’ out of the Way!” As the Porsche 911RSR won its class in both the World Endurance Challenge and at the 12 Hours of Sebring this past weekend (March 15/16), they once again made it clear that leading is best. Let the others follow!