I remember reading that their then-chairman, Ferdinand Piech, and their then-CEO, Martin Winterkorn, wanted Volkswagen to be the number one car maker by 2018. As recently as June 2015, they were ready to declare victory. By July, the news media was heralding their triumph.
And then came the news. By most accounts, it sounded like a deliberate attempt over many years to circumvent CARB emissions testing. Whether it is directly related to the goal to be the number one car maker or not, any fraudulent activity of this magnitude especially by a company so well known gives me pause. Where did this culture of win-at-all-costs come from?
There is nothing wrong with wanting to win. But the way to victory matters to some people. It matters to me.
Back in elementary and high school, our math questions were graded on a scale of 1 to 5. The answer must include the method or the calculation, and the result itself. A perfect score meant both the method and the result are correct. Get the answer wrong, but the method is close, you get some points. If you just wrote the final number or equation without the method, you just get one point.
Even then, the method mattered.
Lance Armstrong was heavily celebrated as a cancer-beating Tour de France-winning cyclist until he finally admitted using performance-enhancing drugs when he was competing. Yes, he did win 7 tours. But all that didn't matter because in his quest to win, he employed questionable methods.
In Marshall Goldsmith's book, "What Got You Here Won't Get You There", he opens with a story of a top performer who is described as "not a team player." People dislike working with him. The CEO of that company told him that if this person wouldn't change, he would be out of the company in a year, even though he was a top performer. How did he get there by not being a team player?
Many more examples can be cited on perceived "wins" but with a backstory filled with deception, coercion, cheating, and outright lies. In companies, these may be isolated, in which case, people get fired, or it may be cultural, and the entire brand is tainted. For me, personally, it is okay to "lose", as long as I don't lose my integrity. And it is great to "win", a great thing to succeed, but the method how it was achieved matters equally.
Lance Armstrong was heavily celebrated as a cancer-beating Tour de France-winning cyclist until he finally admitted using performance-enhancing drugs when he was competing. Yes, he did win 7 tours. But all that didn't matter because in his quest to win, he employed questionable methods.
In Marshall Goldsmith's book, "What Got You Here Won't Get You There", he opens with a story of a top performer who is described as "not a team player." People dislike working with him. The CEO of that company told him that if this person wouldn't change, he would be out of the company in a year, even though he was a top performer. How did he get there by not being a team player?
Many more examples can be cited on perceived "wins" but with a backstory filled with deception, coercion, cheating, and outright lies. In companies, these may be isolated, in which case, people get fired, or it may be cultural, and the entire brand is tainted. For me, personally, it is okay to "lose", as long as I don't lose my integrity. And it is great to "win", a great thing to succeed, but the method how it was achieved matters equally.
