VW plans to break expensive habits

VOLKSWAGEN’s (VW) namesake brand plans to break some expensive habits: developing new car parts from scratch when existing ones would do or making last-minute changes to new vehicles just before they start production. The policy revisions are part of a 12-point strategy laid out to managers by the brand’s new chief, Herbert Diess, according to people familiar with the plans, who asked not to be named because the talks were private. Diess had also proposed streamlining costs and expenses, regional decision-making and communication and entering three new markets, the people said. Diess is taking the first steps to transform a culture created over decades of top-down leadership by former chairman Ferdinand Piëch and Martin Winterkorn, who resigned as chief executive. – Bloomberg