New Opel CEO Nick Reilly, in a personal message to employees, has laid out his vision for the company. Stressing that the new management team announced last week will operate on the basis of mutual trust and support and with a complete transparency of activities, he revealed a working vision statement: “To be a leading European Manufacturer of high quality, desirable automotive products, based on German Engineering, driven by a united team of professionals and respected around the world.”

Reilly vowed to bring to life the new Opel slogan “Wir leben Autos” (we live for cars). “We will lower our cost levels so that we can be profitable in a weaker market and we will use that profit to reinvest in new products, new technology and new facilities,” he said.

Whilst praising the Insignia and Astra models, Reilly admitted that there were gaps in the company’s product portfolio. “We are missing an entry in the “mini” segment, we don’t have an identified successor for the Combo, we are not leading in hybrids or pure electric vehicles and our traditional powertrains have mixed performance in fuel economy, CO2 and drive-ability. We intend to address these as quickly as we can.”

He stressed the need for a highly motivated workforce which he believes has been damaged by weakening performance and significant losses over past years as well as by the uncertain future over the past 12 months and identified the need to be seen to be working as one team. He made a point of associating the Trade Unions and Works Councils around Europe with this aim. “I fully respect the role of a responsible union and its leaders. Indeed, I believe unions play a necessary role in any large company. Without the counterbalance of a union voice, there is a serious risk of irresponsible or abusive management. The key here is mutual respect, searching for a win-win outcome, with both parties recognizing the situation facing a company, keeping our open dialogue and then taking responsible actions to move the company forward and grow for the sake of employees and stakeholders.”

Reilly believes that Opel products should be sold in markets outside Europe and said that, with the right product, a strong image and enough money to build the brand in other countries exports from Europe could be grown profitably over time. He expects the total market in Western Europe to decline in 2010 to a level 1.5 million units lower than an already weak 2009 and accepts that Opel/Vauxhall needs to move fast to turn around its operating results.

“On the cost side, we are working to restructure our manufacturing operations to reduce our break-even point,” he said. “But we also need to be very cost conscious in all areas, especially in this difficult year of 2010. So, expenditures that can be deferred should be and I have specifically tasked our leadership to reduce bureaucracy all around the company. Examples are to delegate authority for spending decisions lower down the organisation, with an emphasis on trust rather than control, and to reduce the amount of time spent in meetings and preparing reports by 50 percent. Also, I want to see the encouragement of ideas from all levels of the organisation. Nobody knows better how to assemble a quality car efficiently than the person on the assembly line. Nobody knows better what the customer is really experiencing than our dealers, our sales and our aftersales people in the field.

“These activities are not only about one country. Every function and every entity around Europe needs a fierce commitment to make a contribution. We cannot afford to have any country or any product losing money in the long term. We will shortly introduce metrics to show profitability by product and by market and we will then track them regularly.”

Reilly went on to stress the benefits of Opel/Vauxhall’s membership of the GM family. “We benefit from the leverage of our global technology, our global architectures, our global purchasing volumes, our global manufacturing process, our global IT systems and so on. We should also not forget that we have been, and continue to be, kept alive during this long period of losses by financial support from Detroit. So, please remember that while we are responsible and accountable for the performance of Opel/Vauxhall, we should also take maximum advantage of being a member of a leading global automotive family. We are better for being part of GM and GM is better for having Opel/Vauxhall.”