What we are currently experiencing is not a dent. It is a structural quake.
A month ago, I wrote here about Porsche’s change of strategy.
At the time, it was a message with a signal effect. Today it is a reality with consequences: Porsche’s profit collapsed by 95.9 percent in the first three quarters of 2025.
The third quarter even ends with a loss of around one billion euros. Sales in China plummeted by 26 percent, and worldwide it was minus six percent.
The VW Group’s former guarantor of returns is faltering, not because of a lack of technology, but because of a lack of strategic clarity.
Porsche had first relied fully on electric, then made an abrupt U-turn.
Battery factories cancelled, new models postponed, billions postponed.
Instead of shaping progress, it is being reversed. The bill follows promptly, financially and reputatively.
What we see here is more than a temporary problem.
It is a lesson in the misunderstanding of strategy.
Because strategy does not mean:
– electric today, petrol again tomorrow
– ESG today, “Back to Basics” tomorrow
– transformation today, damage limitation tomorrow
Strategy means:
1. Clarity in the goal
2. Consistency in the way
3. Flexibility in time
In my post I wrote:
“It is not courageous to constantly change direction. It is courageous to stay the course, endure setbacks and consistently work on the future.”
What Porsche is now experiencing is the receipt for a zigzag course that ties up resources internally and costs trust externally.
In the short term, this change in strategy may stabilize sales.
Customers who are skeptical about electromobility will find their offer. Traders breathe a sigh of relief. But in the medium term, high costs, technical disruptions and uncertainty remain.
And in the long term? There is no way around alternative drives, driven by legislation, technology and the expectations of the next generation of customers.
The apprenticeship for managers, far beyond the automotive industry:
Transformation is never straightforward. But if you turn around every headwind, you lose the compass.
Leadership means actively managing change without constantly questioning the basic direction.
The customer is not interested in ideological target images, but in benefits, reliability and trust.
However, if a brand like Porsche, which stands for technical excellence and brand power, suddenly loses its course, then the engine of the German economy threatens to drown.
If you want to survive now, you don’t need more of everything, but less, but better:
Less actionism, less opportunism. Instead, more real leadership, more proximity to the market, more consistency.
Strategy does not mean going into reverse gear, but knowing what you stand for and what you don’t.
“Unleash potential – celebrate success.”
