The smoke screen which has been created by the recent costly and long winded investigation into the actions of the Phoenix Group has acted to obscure some Machiavellian practices in Downing Street which may prove the real reason why this issue is continually being kicked into the long grass.
Shortly after BMW announced that they were pulling out (is it just me or does anyone else think that BMWs keep pulling out on them), Prime Minister Tony Blaire made some rather comforting noises about his preparedness to provide financial support for the company.
His reasons for doing this may have been due to the fact that it had been said for many years that the government could not shut down a plant such as Longbridge without suffering severe repercussions. The only problem was that Gordon Brown in some secretive deal had gained exclusive control over the Exchequer until Blair abdicated in his favour.
Brown saw his chance to damage Blair and hasten his own entry into Number 10 and vetoed any financial aid for the company. His actions failed and did not bring Blair down, it took a war to do that, but this does show that the man was quite prepared to sacrifice tens of thousands of jobs both at Rover and all those who depended on that company, just to further his own ambitions.
Showing posts with label John towers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John towers. Show all posts
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
MG Rover
So, after £15 million of taxpayers money and five years of 'investigations' it seems that the MG Rover bosses have no case to answer. Everyone gets rich on Rover - except the workers. Lets hope that the full storey comes out now that John Towers and associates are free to speak at last.
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
The Story of the Death of Rover.
Part 3 The English Were Patient.
After the fuss and media fun and games of the BMW ‘takeover’ there followed an anticlimax akin the ‘phoney war’, that period of apprehension followed by not much happening after news of the war was famously announced by Chamberlain on BBC radio: 'I have to tell you now,' he said, 'this country is at war with Germany.' At the time in 1939 people were expecting German troops to begin parachuting into towns and villages some dressed as nuns according to Dads Army. (I don’t recall the Rover board showing any of these episodes to the BMW board though).
We waited and waited but – no Germans and then there was the Road show. All Rover group employees took it in turns to be shipped out to the various Social Clubs with suitable sized halls which existed around the company. At Longbridge, there was a large assembly hall on site where all were gathered too see a car launch style presentation with dry ice, flashing lights and presentations which explained the plan. This was summed up by the road show theme tune, Two Hearts, One Mind by Phil Collins. The two companies were to operate as separate organisations, that was the two hearts bit. But what about the ‘one mind’? That question remained unanswered. Amongst the shop floor, suspicion began to grow that BMW, like so many other aspiring owners were only interested in a few gems such as 4 by 4 technology and getting their hands on some of the iconic brands owned by Rover such as Mini, Triumph, Riley, MG etc. Amongst management there was incredulity that a company like BMW would not take the sane business decision to take the economies of scale that would accrue when the two businesses were merged. Just like in Dads Army, the Germans still did not come.
During this Time John Towers remained as head of Rover but it was widely understood that BMW thought that he was too close a supporter of Honda and Japanese manufacturing techniques and BMW were not very impressed with these. Then someone made the decision to allow a documentary team exclusive and intrusive access to the company to make ‘When Rover Met BMW’. This was seen as a daft decision by many, even in the department which dealt with the press and media. It achieved very little for the two organisations but as they were completing their filming and had most of the series edited, John Towers announced his departure. This caused pandemonium amongst the film crew and they hastily shot some additional footage and included a scene where Wolfgang Reitzler , then BMW number two to Berndt Pischetsreider, made an announcement of which John Towers was completely in the dark. The implication of the documentary was that they had expected this to be the outcome all along. The documentary did show however that Dr Reitzler appeared to be a very ambitious person – to say the least.
I can understand why so many in the company felt that John Towers should be the man to lead the team to run Rover after BMW pulled out. He was at the top of the organisation before BMW came along, when Rover was making profits and their products were overcoming their reputation for poor quality and old fashioned design. He was head of the company for the first few years after BMW took over and it was only after he had gone that things seemed to take a turn for the worse. That was when the Germans finally did arrive.
What then followed was a great British car and a huge squabble between two senior BMW executives which nearlt did for both campanies.
After the fuss and media fun and games of the BMW ‘takeover’ there followed an anticlimax akin the ‘phoney war’, that period of apprehension followed by not much happening after news of the war was famously announced by Chamberlain on BBC radio: 'I have to tell you now,' he said, 'this country is at war with Germany.' At the time in 1939 people were expecting German troops to begin parachuting into towns and villages some dressed as nuns according to Dads Army. (I don’t recall the Rover board showing any of these episodes to the BMW board though).
We waited and waited but – no Germans and then there was the Road show. All Rover group employees took it in turns to be shipped out to the various Social Clubs with suitable sized halls which existed around the company. At Longbridge, there was a large assembly hall on site where all were gathered too see a car launch style presentation with dry ice, flashing lights and presentations which explained the plan. This was summed up by the road show theme tune, Two Hearts, One Mind by Phil Collins. The two companies were to operate as separate organisations, that was the two hearts bit. But what about the ‘one mind’? That question remained unanswered. Amongst the shop floor, suspicion began to grow that BMW, like so many other aspiring owners were only interested in a few gems such as 4 by 4 technology and getting their hands on some of the iconic brands owned by Rover such as Mini, Triumph, Riley, MG etc. Amongst management there was incredulity that a company like BMW would not take the sane business decision to take the economies of scale that would accrue when the two businesses were merged. Just like in Dads Army, the Germans still did not come.
During this Time John Towers remained as head of Rover but it was widely understood that BMW thought that he was too close a supporter of Honda and Japanese manufacturing techniques and BMW were not very impressed with these. Then someone made the decision to allow a documentary team exclusive and intrusive access to the company to make ‘When Rover Met BMW’. This was seen as a daft decision by many, even in the department which dealt with the press and media. It achieved very little for the two organisations but as they were completing their filming and had most of the series edited, John Towers announced his departure. This caused pandemonium amongst the film crew and they hastily shot some additional footage and included a scene where Wolfgang Reitzler , then BMW number two to Berndt Pischetsreider, made an announcement of which John Towers was completely in the dark. The implication of the documentary was that they had expected this to be the outcome all along. The documentary did show however that Dr Reitzler appeared to be a very ambitious person – to say the least.
I can understand why so many in the company felt that John Towers should be the man to lead the team to run Rover after BMW pulled out. He was at the top of the organisation before BMW came along, when Rover was making profits and their products were overcoming their reputation for poor quality and old fashioned design. He was head of the company for the first few years after BMW took over and it was only after he had gone that things seemed to take a turn for the worse. That was when the Germans finally did arrive.
What then followed was a great British car and a huge squabble between two senior BMW executives which nearlt did for both campanies.
Monday, 6 July 2009
Longbridge Shame
My decision to leave Rover shortly after The Phoenix group took over Longbridge was based on my belief that the team had up to five years to find a partner or they would have to close. As this would put me in a position of being 55 years old and looking for a job I took the option which provided the best long term security for myself and my family and took the position I still hold at Warwick Business School.
I never doubted the commitment or the capability of John Towers and his team as I had worked with John since the eighties when I joined Land Rover. What I did doubt however was whether there were any serious motor manufacturers in the world who would not be pleased to see a plant with the capacity of Longbridge closed, as there was and still is too much capacity for motor manufacture, the results of which are all too visible right now.
Although they tried, the group could not find a partner even though discussions with a Chinese company went right up to the deadline. We all know the outcome; six thousand Longbridge workers out of work and more in the supply chain and what was left of the company went to China for peanuts anyway. We are still hearing promises about some form of production of the MG sports car but nothing seems to materialise from this either. The government did much the same as they are doing today, they announced loads of meaningless initiatives but said their hands were tied by European legislation regarding financial help – although they didn’t seem constrained by the same requirements when bailing out the financial system recently.
Then the UK government in its wisdom decided that they needed to hold an enquiry to discover what happened to the £300 million that was given to the company by BMW as a loan so that the Phoenix group could take a plant that BMW had announced was loosing £290 million a year off its hands. Now these are all large numbers so they need to be put into some context; to develop a new car and get it to the marketplace costs around £250 – 500 million, so in motor industry terms these numbers are not that big. Bearing this in mind, the Phoenix group made a good job of reducing the losses when a company with the reputation of BMW could not - but it could not invest in new models.
So, there seems to be some smoke screen being put up by the government about £40 million in salary and pensions taken by 4 executives over 5 years. I am speechless, they have spent £16 million to discover that the Phoenix executives who put their own money and reputations on the line were paid about a quarter of what the new chief executive of the bailed out RBS is going to be paid.
I looks to me like the government is trying to ensure that blame is directed towards the people who were trying to save the company rather than towards their own weak and ineffectual efforts. Longbridge was not the same company that hit all the news in the sixties and seventies and by the time it closed they had not lost one minute to industrial action in 25 years and the workforce had voted to accept some of the most modern and efficient working practices in Europe. It is a great pity that their efforts have gone largely unrecorded.
I never doubted the commitment or the capability of John Towers and his team as I had worked with John since the eighties when I joined Land Rover. What I did doubt however was whether there were any serious motor manufacturers in the world who would not be pleased to see a plant with the capacity of Longbridge closed, as there was and still is too much capacity for motor manufacture, the results of which are all too visible right now.
Although they tried, the group could not find a partner even though discussions with a Chinese company went right up to the deadline. We all know the outcome; six thousand Longbridge workers out of work and more in the supply chain and what was left of the company went to China for peanuts anyway. We are still hearing promises about some form of production of the MG sports car but nothing seems to materialise from this either. The government did much the same as they are doing today, they announced loads of meaningless initiatives but said their hands were tied by European legislation regarding financial help – although they didn’t seem constrained by the same requirements when bailing out the financial system recently.
Then the UK government in its wisdom decided that they needed to hold an enquiry to discover what happened to the £300 million that was given to the company by BMW as a loan so that the Phoenix group could take a plant that BMW had announced was loosing £290 million a year off its hands. Now these are all large numbers so they need to be put into some context; to develop a new car and get it to the marketplace costs around £250 – 500 million, so in motor industry terms these numbers are not that big. Bearing this in mind, the Phoenix group made a good job of reducing the losses when a company with the reputation of BMW could not - but it could not invest in new models.
So, there seems to be some smoke screen being put up by the government about £40 million in salary and pensions taken by 4 executives over 5 years. I am speechless, they have spent £16 million to discover that the Phoenix executives who put their own money and reputations on the line were paid about a quarter of what the new chief executive of the bailed out RBS is going to be paid.
I looks to me like the government is trying to ensure that blame is directed towards the people who were trying to save the company rather than towards their own weak and ineffectual efforts. Longbridge was not the same company that hit all the news in the sixties and seventies and by the time it closed they had not lost one minute to industrial action in 25 years and the workforce had voted to accept some of the most modern and efficient working practices in Europe. It is a great pity that their efforts have gone largely unrecorded.
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