David Rosenthal: uncertainty

Transcript context

…Look back on it, it's insane. Now, all these icons have emerged, and all this lore has emerged over the years. But when you put yourself in the perspective of those eras... Okay. Porsche is in this tailspin. The two eras that happen next are both equally amazing. In 1993, a guy named Wendelin Wiedeking gets appointed as the CEO. He had actually started his career with Porsche in the 80s. As all this crazy stuff is happening, he was a loud voice of protest against all the Schutz and Fuhrmann era decisions, he resigned and left the company. They recruit him back in the early 90s to take over as head of production. He implements the Toyota Production System at Porsche, which they must have been the last auto manufacturing in the world. I don't know if Ferrari uses the Toyota Production System, but this wasn't new technology at this point in time. Remember, Porsche is bleeding cash, being more efficient and more profitable in your operations for whatever cars you can sell is pretty important. He's like the Tim Cook of Porsche here. He gets promoted to CEO. When he does, speaking of Apple, he pull the Steve Jobs return moment. He cuts the product lines down to just the 911. This is the right thing that needed to be done, but it's also crazy. He kills the 944, 968, he kills the 928. He takes everything back down to just the 911. Analysts, people like car magazines ask him, what's your strategy for an entry level Porsche? He says, Porsche's strategy for an entry level Porsche is a used Porsche. It's such a good line.…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.