Bob Lutz is not just a “car type”. He is The Auto type – The type of manager whose decisions have left tire traces on the asphalt of automotive history. During his short but effective term as a board member of BMW for the sale, Lutz provided his reputation and steered the company on enthusiastic icons such as the Turbo 2002 and 3.0 CSL. He also planted the seeds of BMW Motorsport, the department, which would grow to a motorsport package.
But Lutz was not just about horsepower and handling. The resume born in America and grew up in America reads like a cross between a spy novel and a company play book. While he earned an MBA in Berkeley, he flew jets with the US Marine Corps Reserve. After leaving military service in 1964, he came to Opel in Germany and climbed to the ranks until BMW attracted him to Munich in 1972. At the age of only 39, Lutz became a board member for sales and marketing and reported to the equally young and visionary CEO, CEO, CEO ,, Eberhard von Kuenheim.
It didn’t take long for Lutz to raise his sleeves and deal with the sales strategy of BMW – or the lack of the defect. He quickly discovered an alarming imbalance: Independent dealers all over Europe made enormous profits and provided their own margins from BMW, even though they sold far fewer cars. In France, Italy and beyond, these middlemen, such as mini-fiefdoms, worked their contracts relics of a past era when BMW had difficulty finding his foundation.
Lutz, who never shy away from a challenge, worked together from Kuenheim to improve this system. Within two years, BMW had set up its own 100 % subsidiaries in France, Belgium and Italy and recaptured control over his fate. But when Europe was a challenge, the United States was a full -grown crisis.
The culprit? Max Hoffman, the importer born in Viennese, who had contributed to introducing BMW in America in the 1950s, since then had become more liability than asset. Hoffman had exclusive US sales rights, thanks to contracts that were renewed in dubious circumstances by Paul Hahnemann, the former sales director of BMW. As it turned out, Hahnemann was not only corrupt – he had also involved BMW in a network of bad offers. When Lutz arrived, Hoffman’s outdated practices donated the potential of BMW on the booming US market.
Lutz immediately smelled trouble. Hoffman, who was exposed to Munich, tried to sweeten the pot and offered Lutz a suspicious lucrative arrangement to keep things as they were. Lutz, in his factual style, switched down. “Believe me, Maxie, I am very satisfied with my financial agreements,” he joked, later told Hoffman’s increasingly desperate tactics that bordered Mafioso Melodrama. At one point, Hoffman even indicated “unfortunate accidents” if Lutz should stop his empire.
In the meantime, BMW’s US operations fluctuated under Hoffman’s mismanagement. The company forecast sales of 40,000 to 50,000 cars annually, but Hoffman delivered less than half. He refused to import certain models such as 1602 and the tours and reject them immediately. Spare parts? Hoffman considered her to be annoying. Customers waited a long time for the cars they wanted and BMW’s hard -earned reputation for excellence in technical importance.
The situation had become unsustainable until 1974. Hoffman’s unpredictable order had the BMW factories crawl in Munich, forced layoffs and triggered dissatisfaction among the workers. The company’s majority shareholders, Herbert Quandt, asked Kuenheim to put an end to the chaos. On July 9, BMW terminated his agreement with Hoffman and referred to “serious commercial reasons”. But Hoffman, loyal to the shape, did not go quietly and took off the fight for almost a year before BMW officially took over the US operations from North America.
Lutz ‘time at BMW was short but transformative. He not only sold cars; He redesigned the company’s global strategy and laid the foundations for the later increase to dominance. And while his clashes with Hoffman like a Hollywood script read, they underlined a deeper truth about Lutz: he was a man who not only spoke about excellence – he asked for it around him and above all of himself.
