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INDUSTRY
“THE TOUGHEST
JOB IN THE
BUSINESS”
Not for nothing has
Motor Trend
dubbed his “the toughest job
in the business.”
Trim, bespectacled and so -spoken, the British-born 53-year-
old CEO comes across as an easygoing guy. His track record, how-
ever, suggests a willingness to roll up his sleeves when the need
arises. Browning first joined the U.K. car industry straight out
of college in the early 1980s, a turbulent era marked by brawling
union bosses and plagued by plummeting sales. Yet the rookie
auto executive didn’t just survive the turmoil—he thrived, rising
through the ranks at Vauxhall, Ford, Jaguar and GM Europe in
the years that followed.
Coming to Volkswagen presented Browning with his big-
gest challenge yet. In 1970, during the Beetle’s heyday, VWGoA
was selling some 600,000 cars a year. By 1993, that number had
dwindled to around 50,000, and the idea began to take root
that the firm’s Beetle-centric reputation was holding it back, a
perception that was not diminished by the rather
J
onathan Browning is a cycling enthusiast, a fact that
makes some of his colleagues anxious—not out of
concern for his safety, but because spandex may not
deliver, as they say, the best visual. Shortly before a recent
charity ride, as Browning prepared to do a TV news interview,
one of his communications executives blurted, “Make sure they
shoot you head-and-shoulders, Jon!”
Therewas laughter, but the execwas only half kidding. Brown-
ing is CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, and public image is
a sensitive issue at themoment. While Volkswagen ranks behind
only General Motors in global sales, its U.S. unit—VWGoA, for
short—hasn’t set the automotive world on fire since the Beetle
and theMicrobus became the unofficial vehicles of the Summer
of Love. And with Volkswagen having announced its intention
to overtake GM in sales within the next six years, Browning has
been taskedwithmoving 800,000 cars annuallyby 2018, more than
doubling his unit’s sales in a very short period of time.
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
SEPTEMBER 2012
63
DANIEL ACKER/LANDOV (BROWNING)
INSIDE JONATHAN
BROWNING’S LONG-SHOT
QUEST TO PUT VOLKSWAGEN
BACK ON TOP IN THE U.S.
BY ERIC TEGLER
A BUG’S LIFE
VW’s fortunes
in the U.S. have long been
tied to the iconic Beetle