There is no place like home, says Port Elizabeth-born Mike Glendinning, who has been appointed as the new sales and marketing director of Volkswagen Group SA (VWSA), after spending five years in Mexico.
One of the major challenges Glendinning faced while living in the North American country, was spending four days a week learning Spanish.
Glendinning, a former Grey High School pupil, was first employed by VWSA in 1985 as a graduate trainee.
Since then, he has held numerous high-level positions at the company and is now involved in readjusting the automotive giant’s business model to ensure long-term future growth.
Glendinning spent his initial working years at the branch in Uitenhage, but later moved to Johannesburg when VWSA relocated its sales and marketing office.
In 2014, he moved to Mexico to become sales and marketing director of Volkswagen de Mexico.
He is now back in Johannesburg, but said he would encourage any person who was afforded the opportunity to work internationally to grab it with both hands.
“It was truly a great working experience. I had five challenging but five very enjoyable years,” he said.
“It is something that really takes you out of your comfort zone and challenges you personally.”
During his stint in Mexico, Glendinning said the company enjoyed strong growth in the first three years.
But the last two years were financially tough and saw the Mexican peso devalue significantly – largely due to the US election results.
“Given those tough circumstances, we focused a lot on improving the qualitative aspects of our business – so customer and dealer satisfaction, as well as digitisation,” Glendinning said.
While he missed his family, friends and sporting matches back home, he said he fully embraced being given the chance to work internationally
“I am proudly South African, and I was always observing from a distance and stayed up to date with the country’s developments,” he said.
“My family and I travelled extensively throughout Mexico and other countries in the region. It’s a really diverse, beautiful and interesting country.
“But I am very happy to be back. Home is home,” he said.
With almost 35 years’ experience in the industry, Glendinning said the world was in the midst of “an automotive revolution”.
He said one of the primary strategic challenges facing VWSA was to position the company to be “future-proof” to continue as a market leader.
“If you take e-mobility, electric vehicles, autonomous driving as well as the connected car, which is basically the internet on wheels, these are all going to have a profound effect on our business.
“It’s a challenging future, but a very exciting future, with completely new business models, new revenue streams, and we need to make sure we are pioneers and remain at the forefront of developments, to secure our own future.
“At a holistic and high level, it’s an automotive revolution that we are living in and we reposition ourselves to capitalise on these opportunities.”
VWSA chair and managing director Thomas Schaefer said he was pleased to welcome Glendinning back to VWSA after almost five years.
“Our business and our dealers will greatly benefit from his vast experience and expertise.”