“Small Steps Are Faster”

How to successfully steer one of the world's largest automotive groups through the transformation towards becoming a software-oriented mobility provider? “Many small steps advance us faster than one big leap,” says Hauke Stars in an interview with Porsche Consulting Magazine. As the member of the Board of Management in charge of IT she is the driving force behind the digital transformation at Volkswagen AG.

When Hauke Stars joined Volkswagen in 2022, it was quickly clear to her that the Volkswagen Group has many strengths: strong brands, outstanding products, and superbly motivated employees. One big challenge for digitalization, however, has to do with how the company works. Volkswagen’s basis had thus far consisted of developing hardware, which is associated with long development cycles. Software, however, and ultimately digitalization itself, function differently. It’s crucial to understand the architecture and define the goal and then to develop in short, agile cycles.

Because speed is one of the keys to success in IT, Stars and her team started by slicing up the most important digitalization projects in order to give the business a series of measurable results. This fosters a new type of flexibility. At the same time, the company is structuring itself more effectively as an IT organization, picking up the pace, looking for synergies, and reducing bureaucracy. The introduction of a large number of AI solutions also helps in very concrete terms to lower costs, further optimize energy and material use, and improve everyday routines for many employees.