get subordinates to meet his lofty goals; during Piëch's induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2014, fellow automotive executive Bob Lutz recounted a conversation he had with Piëch at the Frankfurt Auto Show in the early 1990s, in which he remarked how he was impressed with the fit and finish and tight body tolerances on Volkswagen's new models. Piëch told Lutz that he achieved this by assembling Volkswagen's top body engineers in his office and telling them they would all be fired if all of Volkswagen's vehicles didn't have body tolerances of 3 millimeters within six weeks. Wired described Piëch as "Machiavellian" and "an autocrat's autocrat". Bob Lutz said of his management style, "It's what I call a reign of terror and a culture where performance was driven by fear and intimidation[...]That management style gets short-term results, but it's a culture that's extremely dangerous. Look at dictators. Dictators invariably wind up destroying the very countries they thought their omniscience and omnipotence would make great. It's fast and it's efficient, but at huge risk." He would also describe Piëch as a "mad genius" that while he respected, he would never want to work for or with at any capacity. Lutz, CNBC, the American documentary TV series Dirty Money, among others, have claimed that the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal is the result of the ruthless and tyrannical corporate culture Piëch installed at the company. Although Piëch had tried a hostile takeover against Suzuki in 2010 and threatened its management, Suzuki won the case to terminate its partnership with Volkswagen at the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce after Piëch fell from power, and could dissolve the capital tie-up until September 2015. Awards Named Car Executive of the Century (1999) Wilhelm Exner Medal (2002). Inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame (2014) Footnotes Notes References External links Volkswagen boss denies slush fund knowledge 1937 births 2019 deaths ETH Zurich alumni Businesspeople from Vienna Porsche family Austrian automotive engineers Volkswagen Group executives Lamborghini people Chief executives in the automobile industry Audi people Scania AB people Škoda people Austrian people of German Bohemian descent Automotive businesspeople Porsche people Alumni of Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz