“Odysseus, a US hero?”: Letters to the editor, August 31, 2026

One letter argues that management bears primary responsibility for the difficulties facing the automotive industry, including Volkswagen’s crisis. Peter Kremmel, a management consultant from Vienna, says managers should have recognized problems earlier and responded before they became crises.

He criticizes the industry’s record from the emissions scandal and failed product strategies to moving production to lower-wage countries. The relocation of Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW and Audi plants to Hungary kept some value creation within the European Union, he writes, but offered little comfort to workers in Germany.

Kremmel says Austrian suppliers have gained some business from the shift, including around 100,000 electric motors sent to Hungary last year. He warns that this advantage could disappear if company executives decide Chinese suppliers can provide the same parts more cheaply. He also questions why managers receive bonuses while employees bear the consequences of corporate failures.

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In 40 years of management consulting, I have not encountered a single case where management was not mainly responsible for a company’s difficulties.

A second letter on Austria’s military-service reform says Europe’s geopolitical situation has changed sharply and welcomes the Austrian armed forces’ historically higher budget after decades of cuts. The writer argues that replacing outdated equipment should not be described as rearmament, but as an effort to restore international minimum standards and make Austria’s constitutional neutrality credible.

The letter also calls for military and civilian service to be treated as equally important pillars of national security and the welfare state. It criticizes lengthy political bargaining over military service and the expected replacement of ageing Eurofighter aircraft.

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Why are bonuses paid to those who caused the chaos while the workforce has to deal with their problems?