Is Volkswagen so Complicated Only Insiders Can Fix It?

Volkswagen’s effort to fix its emissions scandal will be largely led by company insiders. Some experts say it’s the only way.

Company logos of the German carmaker Volkswagen sit in a box at a scrap yard in Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 23, 201. AP Photo/Michael Sohn

WOLFSBURG, Germany—Volkswagen’s effort to fix its emissions scandal will be largely led by company insiders. Some experts say it’s the only way, given the German carmaker’s unusually complicated structure and power groups.

Others, however, argue the company is just compounding its risks if it does not bring an outsider to change its ways.

Volkswagen has named a new CEO and chairman since the scandal became known Sept. 18. Both are longtime employees.

The effort to find the guilty and prevent a recurrence is in the hands of new CEO Matthias Mueller, who has been with the group for almost three decades. Mueller, who previously led Volkswagen’s highly profitable Porsche brand, took over when Martin Winterkorn resigned.

The new board chairman, Hans Dieter Poetsch, had been chief financial officer since 2003. There’s no indication he knew about the decision to cheat on the U.S. diesel emissions tests with software installed in engines. But he was a member of the top management team in place when the cheating took place, a group of executives that hasn’t yet been formally cleared of involvement.

Mueller has promised a new, more open approach.

The question is, will Volkswagen identify the guilty—but miss the chance to change the culture that enabled the scandal in the first place?

The Volkswagen factories and administration and sales buildings in Wolfsburg, northern Germany, on Oct. 5, 2015. For Volkswagen, the cost of its cheating on emissions tests in the U.S. is likely to run into the tens of billions of dollars and prematurely end its long-sought status as the world's biggest carmaker. Julian Stratenschulte/DPA via AP