Two Hearts, One Loser. Don't mention the war.

The story of the death of Rover.
Part 2. Don’t mention the war.

After BMW has taken the chance to inspect the books and view the new products under development, particularly the new style Range Rover and the Freelander, it was time for the new owners to take possession of their assets. Again, the workforce at Rover welcomed the opportunity to now be part of a successful motor company with a tradition of motoring excellence and a passion for ‘drivers cars’, the boss of BMW Berndt Pischetsrieder was a self proclaimed ‘petrol head’ and related to Sir Alec Isigonis developer of the famous Mini. Things were looking good for the future prospects of the company and there was a general good feeling throughout the plants at Longbridge, Cowley, Solihull and Swindon.

Everyone waited, it was quite a eyrie time, everyone was expecting changes, new initiatives, products, flags, badges and work wear; new letterheads, business cards, company livery and language lessons but as days turned into weeks nothing, the only noticeable event was that there were no longer any Japanese Honda technicians and a marked decline in those learning Japanese. People then started to fear the worst.

Because of my position, I was one of the few that had anything to do with personnel from BMW in the very early days. BMW workers and stakeholders also wanted to know about us so I hosted a number of teams from BMW communications department who were preparing articles for their various internal publications and annual report. They all seemed enthusiastic, committed and friendly, they were good to work with and very keen to find out about both our current status and particularly our long history because the Austin 7 formed the basis of the beginning of BMW.

Senior executives of both companies, it was assumed, were getting their heads around the task of welding these two great businesses into one larger and more successful company. The benefits were obvious; common parts sourcing, greater economies of scale, fewer head office functions and shared marketing and branding were some of the ways that would make the larger organisation more successful and competitive – everyone wins, except perhaps a few senior board members who’s positions would become superfluous when the two companies became one, Rover had, after all been taken over.

What was really taking place, though, beggars belief. Yes the two senior managements were meeting but the senior Rover team had convinced BMW executives that there was still a great deal of antipathy towards Germany in the UK, that they should not be seen as Jack-booting into Rover, a company much identified as part of the British heritage. They were shown episodes of ‘Allo ‘Allo and even the famous clip from Faulty Towers where John Cleese goose steps around the hotel and is advised by Connie ‘Don’t mention the war’. This was all embarrassing rubbish designed primarily to save the jobs of those making the presentation – but the Germans swallowed it.

The breathtaking self interest of the Rover senior executives was not wholly to blame however. It seems that there was a significant camp within BMW who were so worried about preserving the BMW badge that they also wanted to keep the two companies as separate entities, not to take advantages of the economies of scale, not to create one new larger, more competitive organisation and not to make BMW products in the Rover plants in the UK and vice versa.

These were the first of a series of, to say the least, extraordinary decisions by BMW but more were to come.