Porsche CEO moves closer to VW

DETROIT (Fortune) -- Is Porsche's Wendelin Wiedeking the next Carlos Ghosn? It certainly is beginning to look that way.

Porsche is upping its ownership stake in Volkswagen to nearly 30 percent in what Wiedeking says is an explicit attempt to get more cooperation on technology matters.

And Wiedeking is pushing to get Porsche at least one more seat on VW's supervisory board - the equivalent of an American board of directors - to add to the two it already has.

That will make Porsche the largest shareholder in VW and while Wiedeking says that won't amount to control of VW - that would require as 50 percent stake, he says - it does give it a big say in the company's operations.

Wiedeking already sits on VW's supervisory board, and though he spends a significant amount of time on VW's affairs, he insists he has no interest in running both companies.

But Ghosn's Renault doesn't have a majority stake in Nissan either, which hasn't stopped Ghosn from running the Japanese automaker in addition to Renault.

Besides, the home bases of the two German companies -- Stuttgart for Porsche and Wolfsburg for VW -- are separated by only a few hundred miles, compared to Ghosn's 7,000 mile commute between Paris and Tokyo.

And Wiedeking, a demonstrated turnaround expert based on a decade or more at Porsche, has a far higher industry profile than Ghosn did when he took over Nissan in 1999.

And Porsche, the world's most profitable automaker based on profit per unit, shouldn't require an excess of executive attention these days."I know how to make money," Wiedeking says.

Despite his professed lack of interest in running VW, Wiedeking has a detailed knowledge of its operations. Productivity is VW's biggest problem, he says.

"They have to dramatically increase their productivity and the works council is willing to make changes," he says.

After that comes price -- the cars cost too much. "The products are excellent. The question is how to meet price points."

On the Porsche side, the cost of technology for the tiny manufacturer was growing. "All the new technology for the environment and safety is getting more expensive."

And VW was becoming less cooperative. "The willingness to work together was getting lower and lower."

That won't be a problem with Porsche's growing stake. And Wiedeking may yet decide that to protect his investment in the company, the smart thing may be to take charge of VW himself.

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