Bentley Motors Chairman & CEO: Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser – Heritage, Industrialised Craftsmanship, & the Most Complex Consumer Good in the World

0:00The Gstaad Guy:Well, Frank Walliser, thank you so much for being here. I would love to pronounce your name more appropriately since this is The Gstaad Guy podcast. And it's Walliser. Exactly. There we go. And it's like in Switzerland. The Alps. The part of the Alps in Switzerland, yes. Exactly. Exactly. Around the world with your host, the Stad Guy, we welcome you back to the Stad Guy podcast, sharing stories of excellence with those in the know for those who just know. You're not from the Alps here? No, unfortunately not. But south of Germany, it's not too far away. Exactly, it's not too far. But before turning the camera on, we were both talking about how much we both love and appreciate the mountain, which is very fitting since we are sitting right in front of the chalet edition Bentley Bentayga.

0:53The Gstaad Guy:And for those who are just tuning in audio only today, I urge you to at least take a sneak peek at the video portion of the podcast so you can see this beautiful Bentayga behind us in this brand new building at your factory in Crewe in England. Seems very high tech in here. Yeah, it is. I think a car is and I repeatedly say it's the most complex consumer product in the world it's not a washing machine it's not a smartphone even a smartphone has a lot of functionality but it does not drive at 300 kph it cannot autonomous park and all the other stuff and it fulfills a car is very complex also from a regulation perspective yes it needs a lot of high tech yeah there's lots going on and I've had the pleasure of seeing lots of what Bentley was in the past lots of what Bentley is today and also lots of what Bentley is growing to become which is I assume what's on your mind every single day yes true sometimes that drives you you see where we are what is the ideas what can we do and it's honestly something I also love to work on the future of the company we have a great team here.

2:14It's a demanding job to also turn a little bit around what is Bentley standing for, what we are doing with the brand. It's not only product, so we have to attack both, the product and the brand. And in today's world, if your brand is not strong, forget about the product. You need both and the brand is really driving it. But you have to then, And if the brand and the expectation is there, you have to deliver the product. So it's demanding, but something I really like.

2:47The Gstaad Guy:To me, Bentley is one of those household names that I was familiar with since I was a child, with the undertone of aspiration throughout. I grew up in London, and Bentley in the UK was always this word and brand synonymous with excellence and even heritage from the get-go. And as I grew older, Bentley to me became more and more affiliated with performance as the company grew and developed in different ways. And today I feel like it has multiple identities that resonate with many different people. And I'm going to get into, of course, what resonates with me and how the collaboration sitting behind us was born.

3:29But I'd love to first and foremost actually unpack what Bentley means to you. I can fully agree what you say I think in UK for sure it's the home market the value proposition and the knowledge about Bentley is widespread and well known if you go out in the world it looks a little bit different but to the point Bentley has a wide variety of what it stands for it's the sportiness it's a lot about the sportiness that comes from the heritage and from its origins but it also stands for the luxury proposition the quality the craftsmanship and everything behind that and if i look in in the brands in the world they are normally either very clearly sport and sports cars or they are very clearly luxury but there's not really one brand that that can do both in a very authentic way and a proven track record of the past.

4:33And Bentley I would say is one of these and if I look in other brands they then sometimes also use sub-brands to underline more either the luxurious or the sporty character of it. But Bentley can really cover both and that's a unique, a very unique position.

4:52The Gstaad Guy:I think Bentley is also in many ways an ambassador of England, I find. It's iconically an English brand. Yes, and there's also a demand if you go out in the world, there's a demand for exactly this Englishness and this Britishness that people are looking for. That was also a discussion we did have when the US president came up with these fabulous ideas of raising tariffs to attract businesses to come to the US. i said well we will not move our business to the us because people are asking for british car made in the uk so you cannot move this business yeah but okay the uk position on terrace is acceptable meanwhile it was a good good job by the government but yeah yeah understandable i've had the pleasure of visiting the facilities and crew a few times now and i heard there's over 4500 people working here yeah it feels like a bentley town of its own it's it's incredible and the people are so lovely it's really an amazing place yeah it is it's um i think it developed now over time and we are close to finish all the investment we did over the last um years we invested more than 350 million pounds just on site in assembly and also think like what we are sitting here in the technology center and now it's a real compass so in the past it was divided by the road not everything is one one area and this is is really great everything on short distance you can talk to everyone and when i started here this is maybe the most visible thing or the what you see first is how friendly people are how open-minded they are really supportive and that And this culture is a very important part of Bentley.

6:45The Gstaad Guy:It makes sense. The team and the car and the brand all seem very aligned to me. As a fan of the brand that is lucky enough to not be a collaborator. It's really cool to see that my expectation from the outside was met and actually exceeded after seeing what's on the inside. I think that's important and maybe we make not enough use of that to show our facility, to make people become part of that and see the background and everything. And I strongly believe that a brand in itself, it's not developed by just the corporate strategy. It's always developed by people that care, that are behind it, that represent the brand and that work for the brand.

7:34Yeah, more or less every day. And not depending on what role you have. We have different roles, different responsibilities here on the campus. either you are working in interior and you're assembling seats or your board members or I would say it's different roles but it's everything about the one brand we love.

7:54The Gstaad Guy:I think that brands in many ways are like people they're very complex they develop over time. True. I know that you spent over 30 years working with Porsche and to me that brand is iconically German and if I think of one word when I think of Porsche in terms of value it's precision to me it moves like a Swiss watch and that's to me iconically Porsche and iconically German how would you define the values of the person in question today the person in conversation today Bentley I think we already touched it Bentley is a the brand is a wider character because it's not only sporty. For me, it's very important that we also consider there's a lot of talking about, sure, it's 106 years on the market and exists as a brand.

8:51And as always, in 106 years, you have ups and downs. How the brand was treated and how it developed and there had been very quiet periods. There had been very strong periods, very famous periods. but this heritage is not a strategy just that's a resource we can make use out of it we have to be careful with it we have to protect our heritage and we have to learn from it and today bentley is is a lot about and i think this that's again the character is it's a driver's brand it's a car made for people that love driving yes sometimes we see people are chauffeurs we are also offering cars that have great chauffeuring capabilities but the intent is it's the driver's brand and this we this is something we put in every car and that also means it has to drive properly and we take care a lot on driving dynamics on tires on steering and everything and the bentley interpretation of it is that you have this effortless driving it's very capable it's normally very very powerful and it gives you a superior feeling in driving it and effortless underlines a lot what comes with it but that means on the same time knowing a little bit on the engineering background that's a yeah a hell of a job to make that it feels easy but it's not easy to make it to make it happen that's

10:24The Gstaad Guy:I love you talk about that maybe what describes it best yeah I think that's a great description and it's in many ways a description of my relationship with the brand. I always had this attraction to the brand from a distance and it only turned into a love for the brand and actually particularly the Bentega when I had the chance to drive the car for the first time. One of my dear friends from Ukraine was living in Los Angeles and he had a beautiful car collection there and he would very generously allow me to stay at his house on weekends when I would visit him. I was living in in San Francisco at the time.

11:01The Gstaad Guy:And he would let me drive his cars. And he had a beautiful collection of cars, one of which was a light blue Bentayga with a beautiful white interior. And it featured in many of my early Shtadgai videos about seven years ago. And I remember when I drove his car for the first time, was like nothing I ever felt before. I had never felt this power in a car of this size matched with the level of comfort and that cocooning feeling inside the car. And I immediately fell in love with a Bentayga, not as a statement, but actually as a daily driver and an experience. Especially in California, the roads are very windy and in a taller car, in an SUV, you can kind of get tossed around, especially in an American SUV.

11:46The Gstaad Guy:When you're driving a Bentayga on these windy LA roads, you actually feel like you're hugging the ground, which is very rare in a car this size. And it gives you this confidence in driving and I have the same feeling and for sure I'm due to my job I was also driving Bentleys before but now I have the chance and I'm lucky to do it more also on a daily base and the feeling is when you enter, when you close the door it gives you this self confidence and the cocooning but also a really good feeling without being maybe overconfident or having too much of a status so this is I think this is a fine line also to get that design wise that the car is accepted because what we are looking for is also that you if you are crossing a city that you see positive faces and thumbs up and I had I'm just returning from Italy I had a wonderful light blue continental gt convertible and i've seen so many thumbs up what i did not expect because italy is all about sports cars emotions and everything and people had always a smile and making photos yeah i thought oh wow that's uh and it's a lot about the color i think it's a beautiful car beautiful color especially very nice in spring the sun is coming out yeah yeah it's a beautiful time for that car that's great that cocooning feeling we're both talking about is a feeling that I think is felt in beautiful luxurious hotels, but also a feeling that's quite unique to the mountains and the chalet.

13:31The Gstaad Guy:And I'd love to actually talk about that chalet feeling as we talk about the car behind us today. That feeling of security that you spoke about when you closed that car door is one I think which is a beautiful parallel to chalets that exist in these rugged, very harsh mountains. They can be welcoming, but can also be very scary. And chalets by design are made to be this anti-fear mechanism that keeps people safe, keeps people warm, and more than anything, keeps them together. It keeps them together. It creates a very special feeling. I'm fully with you. It's a cozy place. it's sometimes a chalet is also it's space wise it's not more what you need what makes this very special relaxed feeling and yeah that's a very good link to our cars and maybe if I extend that even a little bit how many TV sets would you put in your chalet?

14:41How many screens would you put in your Bentley? That's maybe a very nice link why we are very reluctant in not over flooding the cars also with modern screens and everything it's not what you're really looking for

14:58The Gstaad Guy:exactly you need some we know you want to have a 5G connection in your chalet or some internet connection for practical reasons but only as much as necessary it's that balance of substance over status which I talk about a lot in my content but to fill something with substance that is used. I think especially in the luxury car market, lots of collectors, quite reasonably so, love to collect many cars. And I think Bentleys, as you said, are made to be driven. And Chalets, in the same way, are meant to be enjoyed. And I think that the Bentayga in particular, as an all-terrain car, with the Chalet spec that I wanted to bring into this car, is really made for the person that wants to enjoy that chalet feeling, not just in the coziness, but also in that utility of enjoying it all seasons, all terrain, and taking that feeling to cities and to the coasts.

15:59So it's a very exciting time for me. Yes, it's good. We just went through the car and I really like the spec. I've seen some of the descriptions and some pictures before, but I've not seen the real car now. And it's really great spec. and I'm in the process of making my own Bentayga at the moment I was already thinking hmm maybe I should go for this one it looks really great and would be a great car to go in the mountains and I think part of Bentley is also because we are talking driving we have a four wheel company yes we have one of the first two wheel drive cars again in front of me but at the moment we have 100 % four wheel drive so that gives you also the capability whatever is the weather, whatever is the conditions if there's snow or ice or sunshine, you can always drive, it's not only a car for sunny Sunday mornings it's this robustness and this unbreakable feeling you have in the car is really solid and that's a very unique and very special feeling but as we have the super sports in front of us it also shows what's possible and that's what excites me so much about the brand and the company we can go in these extremes so it must not be yes we have the capability, we have sportiness and we have the luxurious element in it but it's not that all cars have to be a blend it's the opposite we need maybe more luxurious but even also more sporty and for sure a little bit with my background the more sporty was the most obvious one and we went for that first what would not mean that we give up on the other ideas it's just a question of time and the feedback we got from the market from customers but also from media was overwhelming it was unbelievable it was immediately it went through and yes we did some crazy stuff like drifting with this car through the factory but yeah.

18:14The Gstaad Guy:I mean it's a very cool car. I saw for the first time in real life earlier today and I think on a Bentley spectrum it sits nearly on the opposite end of the spectrum to the chalet but it still carries those iconic Bentley constants that you'd always expect to see there but things like the back seats removed, replaced with this carbon and I think over half a ton was removed from the car. And all the power was just pushed into the back two rear wheels. So you get this very, very different drive to what you'd expect in a typical Bentley. And it's still authentic. And that's the great thing on it.

18:54It's authentic, it's Bentley, and no one said, you cannot do this. This is not Bentley anymore, not at all. it was the opposite a lot of customers said yes that's great we want more of this and I'm sure they will also go for a benthager spec like this and that shows the unique position of the brand that was developed over the years not everything was a strategy sometimes as you say a brand is sometimes like people it develops and as in life sometimes unexpected corners but what is achieved and what is available in the brand is just cool stuff I would say.

19:40The Gstaad Guy:I'd love to learn more about you actually on a personal level I know you worked with Porsche for over 30 years I know you love performance you love specificity and you love pushing the boundaries of what's possible both in terms of performance but also seems in all categories and as a CEO that can be very fun but as you said you're working with so many variables regulation and people's safety of course there's many limiting factors at play so maybe actually the starting point is the best place to start here but why did you get into cars and where did your passion come from? Well exactly why is difficult to describe because I was a car fan always it was never different my parents told me that one of my very first words was car and when I was 5 or 6 I could name every car that was passing me and I was totally in it really fan and then growing up going through all the magazines and stuff and I was always also learning and I still can tell you easier than maybe today but I can tell you the specs, the engine size of the cars from the mid 80s.

21:03I still remember the power output and everything. It's more difficult today to have all these numbers, but somehow they are burnt in my brain and that had an impact on it and then when reflecting okay, maybe 16, 17, I think where I want to go and so I decided I studied mechanical engineering in Stuttgart.

21:34And car industry was always my target. But I also studied technology management. And I had always a big interest on the management side of it. Not only the technical side, how to organize things, how to change things. My PhD was a subject of, this was really off automotive. was all about changing processes in big companies and big organizations. So yeah, maybe the skill set also helped over time, but always in cars. And then there was an opportunity to get an internship in Porsche. And this is where it really got exciting. And I was super excited about it and worked my way through. Did over time, that 30 years covers a very very long time and also an existing and a very interesting part in the automotive industry because it's mid 90s um yeah you go to many crises um through changes in the company's company structure um evolving technology from uh yeah combustion engine only to hybrids to full electric cars all these transition had been in in the in the center of my of my professional life um i was lucky to get some really interesting projects i would say with 918 spider is maybe the most most famous one and not so easy project i would say today it looks everything easy because we somehow fulfilled it and the cars are on the road and they're still amazing but back in the days it was not easy at all because it was super complex technically it was a very demanding project from financial perspective organization and technology, timing everything was super demanding but a good team and then we just made it I worked a lot in motorsports nearly 9 years in motorsports different functions maybe that is where the performance orientation does come from um that was always driving me i was excited by by the technology but also by the competition um but also by the camaraderie you have racetrack is something very special um even with the competition was always interested in also to have good conversation with the competition and good relationship with the competition So exciting stuff.

24:12Then you travel the world in motorsports. I think I raced on every continent with the race team. So that's also part. And I think you can, if you're careful and sensitive enough, you can extract a lot on how a race team operates to your regular jobs in terms of timing, reliability, taking over responsibility, get your jobs done, finish things. Because in a race team, when the race starts, you should be ready. They will not wait for you. And maybe I could carry a lot of the spirit in my ways of working and how I act as a manager today. So can you

25:00The Gstaad Guy:paint a picture of what the group is and who all the siblings are within this group? If you have another two hours, I can try to explain the Volkswagen Group. This is the most unique car manufacturer in the world, I would say. Well, Volkswagen Group and Bentley is part of the Volkswagen Group since 1998. You have different governance models. You have different groups, brand groups called. So you have Porsche for sport and luxury. You have the brand group Progressive with Audi, what is Bentley, but also Lamborghini, Ducati and for sure Audi and then you have Volkswagen Core with Volkswagen Seat, Skoda and Cupra so this is the general structure and it's 650 ,000 people so it's more than 100 factories it's 9 million cars or more than 9 million cars it's however you count it, 12 brands It's an uncountable number of legal entities.

26:08So very, very complex structure, governance, and so on. And for sure you need the alignment and how to manage it. And truth is, for sure the personal network and also was part of it and developed it over the years. The personal network is important. You have to know people. because if you look in your handbook how to steer the Volkswagen group that does not exist this is too complex you need trustful relations and I would not say it's all about knowing people it's not for sure you have a governance process is behind it you have the forums and the ways on how you start projects and what is your responsibility and what not that you learn over the years but the network is also an important part but this is in every big operation company, club whatever it is the network between people is important

27:15The Gstaad Guy:I think lots of people when they hear the word network they think it's quite external facing, I've worked at a big company before, not so much like VW quite different but the internal network and the process of First of all, being credible and working hard and having people be able to back up your work during some sort of... Oh, by the way, what Frank's up to is cool. You want people to agree and not disagree. The credibility is first and foremost. But second is actually getting to know people and build those relationships. I'd love to know more about that, actually. I think what is very important, and you already mentioned it, it's credibility.

27:59to deliver it's not about uh don't don't care on the delivery i know x y and z and they will just back me this is not how networking works it is that you have people behind you that support you in idea in your idea especially in early phases but it will never protect you from not delivering it's all about delivery and in in the car industry it's normally it it's very clear who delivers and who does not deliver, and this is maybe was part also of my career, and you're not always lucky. Sometimes to deliver things, you have to also be lucky. But you should not depend on just luck. There must be a, the majority of your work should be knowledge processes, leading people, leading by example, being credible, being honest.

28:52And if you have a problem, it's not, you should be honest. It's not about hiding, it will come. to the light anyway, earlier or later. It's better earlier than you can solve something. And you should never rely on, you just have the network. In today's world it does not work. It's about delivery and if you deliver and if you trust it, then for sure you can make bolder steps and maybe also make bigger projects. And I think this is how it works. and this is also in now running Bentley, this is a lot about what is the culture about. For sure, I look, I would like to understand what is the process, how does it work.

29:40Yes, you need to network and you know if this guy or the lady shows up, you know, okay, I'm in safe hands, it will work. On others, you say, I better check. And my experience is also, yes, trust. trust people, but that does not mean be blind. You have to check from time to time. Is it really executed? Because that's also part of your responsibility. You cannot excuse and say, oh, I never checked. But you have to. And this is not mistrusting. This is also part of not only a safety net, but also personal involvement. And I would like to see that things are executed like we have defined them, that the processes are working, that also people take over responsibility and they care on what they are responsible for.

30:33And yes, sometimes things go wrong as long as someone starts not defending and saying, oh, this was X or the other department and whatever. The companies have many excuses. It's not about excuses. Things can fail. This is not a problem. Take care.

30:53The Gstaad Guy:Yeah, well said. Well said. well i know that the all those roles are incredibly different to a role of ceo especially in a new country with new company although you bentley and porsche are siblings or cousins however we we define them it's an incredibly different place what did bentley look like to you from the outside and what was it like to finally make that move and become the CEO of this incredible brand? It's for sure it's a journey and I always say you change the four C's, the country, the company, the culture and the car in this specific case and you have to learn all the four and I started with learning the car and as I said I had through different jobs the opportunity to drive Bentleys on different occasions and then I started when it was clear and was public I said I would like to drive cars immediately just to get the experience and learning about the cars and see how they are made and how they are driving and to really get an own opinion an own impression on it and then I did that for two or three weeks and my conclusion was that the cars are really really good and I asked myself how the hell could have not been aware of that that these cars are so good it was honestly call it arrogant or whatever I overlooked that and this is where I really had to reflect and say if you're always in this bubble and you're yes Porsche is very convincing products no question but that's really a threat you don't look really in the details and this is maybe bentleys are sometimes underrated the cars are really astonishingly good this was my first learning and this is not because i'm i'm trying to promote bently now this is my yeah this was my learning in that if you go in a new process and you function what i did very often in my in my career for sure always in the same same environment but it was always different departments different areas I'm working with.

33:14I remember the first day you start with learning about the locations. Where's my office? Where can I park my car? Where do I get some food? All this stuff. So you learn geography. This is where it starts. Then you learn something about people. Who are my colleagues? Who's my first line members? What are they doing? What is their roles? And then you learn about the processes. And I think it takes you, depending on how quick you're learning it, roles and names that's maybe a year location sometimes i'm still lost um but it that comes over time um but processes is something that never ends you always learn on how how do things work how do we get to a result for sure you're part of the volkswagen group so we are you're building cars and projects in the volkswagen group you have some knowledge on that even some words are even in English are exactly the same.

34:13So they use the German words in the UK. So sometimes you smile because you recognize these. But that shows, okay, the base process is pretty much the same. That gives you some confidence. You know, okay, if you want to start a project, it works like this. Like super sports. To have an idea is easy, but how to bring a car to life? That really happens. It's assembled here in our manufacturing line. And the idea is just maybe 20 months ago. Wow. And now it's on the assembly line. We are preparing the start of production. And this is the amazing stuff. This is what you have to learn. Okay, who to ask?

34:58What is the forums? How does it work? And it's a complex product. But that's also part of the knowledge. And then you have to understand the brand, value proposition, how to develop the brand, how to develop the cars. You have everything what is about design, communication part. Internal communication more important in the beginning than the external communication. For example, I did not communicate anything to the outside for the first 100 days. Just also to learn more about and not just stepping in front of a camera and telling something where you would say, oh this guy has has no glue yeah internal communication is very important people are curious they want to learn who is the who is the new boss what is he doing what what character is he and uh but that's also an ongoing journey yeah of course lots of cool stuff in the past two years i would say yes yeah if i if i it's too early to look back but um for sure you make sometimes a cut and you reflect and say how did it look when we started and how does it look now where are we i'm really proud of what what has been achieved um again it's it's like in in every big project it's not the single person that is doing it you need a team in the background that that goes that goes with you that that is ready to to climb on the mountain that is motivated that has the capability.

36:32We did change a lot of things, also in the structure, in acting people, in bringing in some new faces, but I can feel it was not difficult to ignite the passion in this company. I've seen that on Supersports. Everyone really worked, brought everything to the table to make it happen in such a short time. And this is why the car is so important. It's a game change not only in the product but also in the processes and the passion behind it and also to be ready to question things from the past and again this is I think very very important for a brand and a company with such a strong history to not just stay in the past to really explore make new things communication wise, brand wise, corporation wise.

37:28That's the reason why we're sitting here. But also an innovation in the car. Technology to get the right setting to offer things that are unique in the world.

37:39The Gstaad Guy:This podcast is brought to you by Kubelle, bringing you interchangeable charm jewelry, hand painted with enamel on sterling silver, allowing you to celebrate all the things you love and all the things you might question through interchangeable sterling silver bracelets, bangles, whoop charms mini charm bracelets rings cufflings and much more and all customizable through our 3d builder on poubelle.com that is poubelle p-o-u-b-e-l dot com thank you so much for watching and now back to the podcast i think the balance of nostalgia and curiosity is a very delicate one with a heritage brand. I effectively only really work closely with heritage brands under the Stadgea world.

38:30The Gstaad Guy:There's some, of course, innovation that happens like my fun and colorful bracelets, but L 'Oropeana, Audemars Piguet, Aqua di Parma, Bentley, all over 100-year-old brands and all pushing the boundaries of what's possible through that curiosity and also respecting the past and inheriting the past with some degree of nostalgia and respect and i love seeing things like the super sport where it seems like pure curiosity of course you know yeah you can't nobody have you have a very dedicated process definition process you look at your attributes your market position and everything in this process we were sitting down in my office and said it would be cool if it's rear wheel drive only, take out everything what is weight even take out the hybrid drive train and take out the seats in the rear, make a two seater that's cool, it's light and put in the most expensive wheels you can imagine to save the weight and everything and then curiosity was everywhere then for sure you start your product you ask your product line, oh we need a business case it also should work what is the expenditure what can we afford and everything but it only works if you have really passionate people behind that and knowledgeable you have to know what you do because in an office it's quickly decided eight weeks later we were sitting in the car in the first mule wow we were driving in Anglicy and said oh it feels good let's go for it amazing well I know it's tough for you to speak about the future clearly this is a big company but what can you tell us about the things that excite you for the next few years I think in general the automotive industry has in front door is in the middle of one of the biggest transformations over the cars for 140 years now nearly we are faced to a very very big transition to the electric car what will come what is important we have to understand the speed and maybe this was misjudged by the regulators but also by the industry too quick did not work it's a very very complex system including infrastructure we are talking 70 to 80 million cars a year this is unbelievable number of cars, capacities technology, people, everything what comes with it.

41:08And it was totally misjudged how quick you can change an industry like this. And this is why I said, it's not a smartphone. It's way more complex. And we are part of this transition. So the next logical step, Bentley will offer a new car. We are very excited because the reveal will happen in a couple of months. So we are now very close to this, what is maybe the most exciting moment what you can have when working in automotive is the presentation of a new car. And it's a complete new car. So the next, we are adding another Bentley to our offer. And this is super exciting. And yes, it's an electric car.