Despite changes in senior staff, BMW sets record sales high in 2014 H1

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai July 30) - Although the Chinese luxury market seems to have unlimited potential, manufacturers in the segment still have problems to deal with. One is the number of opportunities afforded to high level talent, which are very prone to leaving manufacturers after short tenures.

BMW is a prime example of this. In 2004, when Zhu Liwei joined the manufacturer, a representative from BMW China explained that Mr. Zhu's over ten years of experience in development, product planning and brand management will help push the BMW brand forward. However, despite his promotion to vice president, Mr. Zhu eventually left the company.

Mr. Zhu is the fifth vice president to leave BMW in the last nine months. In 2012 BMW China President and CEO Christoph Stark announced his retirement.

Ever since Mr. Stark's retirement, BMW's senior staff has been undergoing a wave of fluctuations. Less than a month later, top figures in BMW's localization process Lu Yi and Daniel Kirchert also left the company. They were followed by Duan Jianjun and Zhu Jiang, who have both strongly contributed to the development of BMW's sales network and marketing operations.

BMW China PR Director Jiao Xiaoyang, BMW China HR Director Gao Hejie, BMW China Finance, Sales and Marketing Director Liu Jun, Senior Sales Manager of BMW's Western Region He Kuo, Mini Sales and Business Development Senior Manager Wang Yuan and Brilliance BMW Marketing Senior Manager Liu Xu have also all left their positions recently.

Industry Analyst Zhang Zhiyong commented on BMW's situation: "Although BMW hasn't had to deal with problems relating to sales channel integration, it has been severely affected by the major changes to its senior staff. The departure of many famous high-level executives has certainly made its development in China more unstable. [This influence] on its market performance will gradually disappear over the course of 2014."

BMW set a new sales record over the first half of the year, when it sold a total of 225,000 BMW and Mini branded vehicles. The figure represented year-on-year growth of 23.1 percent. However it is still too early to say whether or not the sales record means that BMW has managed to recover from the loss of so much high level talent.