F1 RACING JANUARY 2020 53and I think the managementstrugg led to go back to Daimler and say ‘well,
it’s actually different’. Therefore, my role was mucheasier, because I came
in and I was able to be very direct. I had nopast with the team.
F1R:Talking about your style in particular, where have you learnedyour
own managerial skills?
TW:I think first of all, when you start to talk
about style you’ve lost the plot. I’ve never
before run an organisation ofthis size. My
background is finance, and for 20 years I was
running a small investment company with 20
employees – but with the primary business
of funding interesting companies, hiring and
developing the right management, giving
them a framework in order todevelop the
companies. In the course of these 20 years
I’ve looked at more than 1000 companies and
their people, because at the end ofthe day
every single company is [about] the people.
F1R:How did you apply that knowledge,
experience and learning tothe Mercedes
organisation, to then improve it?
TW:Like I said to you, it’s about understanding the weaknesses and
strengths inthe organisation, and how that overlayswith regulations – what
is needed in order to perform? Where are the others better? And then assess
the individuals, on the senior level, seewhether they are in the right roles,
see whether they are beinggiven the necessary amount of resource – that
doesn’t only mean financial resource – and then empower them.F1R:Can you be specific in terms of work
you did that unlocked theextra potential of
the organisation – people you put in certain
positions, or particular projects you undertook?TW:I don’t want to talk too much about that.
What I can tellyou is that when I joined, within
a few months we were given 20% more budget.
That message didn’t reach the board before
[that the team was underfunded].PeoplelikeAndrewShovlin,withtheteamsincetheBAR
days,arethebackboneofMercedes’successsaysWolff“Whenyoustart totalkabout
managementstyleyou’velosttheplot
becauseattheendofthedayevery
singlecompanyis[about]thepeople”