About This Case Study
This is a retrospective strategic analysis of a real communications challenge, not actual Comms Threader output. It illustrates how strategic scaffolding structures thinking from problem to narrative.
Real Threader outputs depend on your context, uploads, and decisions. See actual tool usage in the Boeing case study or explore best practices.
Volkswagen Group
Dieselgate and the Cost of Deception
The Golden Thread
Problem: This is not an emissions scandal. It is a deception scandal. VW did not accidentally fail a test. It deliberately engineered software to cheat, which means the communications challenge is fraud, not failure.
Tension: The public and regulators could forgive an engineering mistake. They cannot easily forgive an institution that systematically deceived them, because deception reveals character, not competence.
Message: For stakeholders who discovered VW’s culture valued compliance theatre over actual compliance, Volkswagen must demonstrate structural change to incentives and oversight, not cultural change through messaging.
Platform: Acknowledge that the failure was deliberate, not accidental, and rebuild credibility through structural reform that makes repetition impossible rather than unlikely.
Story
The Brief: In September 2015, the US Environmental Protection Agency revealed that Volkswagen had installed “defeat device” software in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide, designed to detect emissions tests and reduce harmful outputs only during testing. On the road, vehicles emitted up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxides. The fraud was deliberate, systematic, and had been running for at least six years.
Challenge Reframe: This is not an emissions scandal. It is a deception scandal. VW did not accidentally fail a test. It deliberately engineered software to cheat, which means the communications challenge is fraud, not failure.
Sector Convention: Automotive companies caught in scandals issue recalls, apologise for falling short of their own standards, and reframe the failure as an isolated incident rather than a systemic problem.
Audience
Priority Stakeholder: Regulators and Government Bodies
Stakeholder Tension: They trusted VW’s compliance data because the alternative, that a major manufacturer was systematically deceiving them, was too damaging to their own credibility to contemplate.
Message
Message Hierarchy: For regulators whose credibility depends on the companies they oversee telling the truth, Volkswagen is the manufacturer that replaces trust-based compliance with verification-based compliance, because independent testing is more reliable than corporate assurances.
What We Won't Say: This was the action of a few individuals. We fell short of our own standards. German engineering means quality.
Plan
Comms Direction: Reframe VW’s recovery not as apology but as structural reform: new compliance architecture, independent verification, and a pivot to electric vehicles that makes the diesel era strategically irrelevant.
Frame: Narrative Territories
The System Fix
Focus on structural reforms: independent compliance boards, whistleblower protections, separation of engineering and emissions testing. Make repetition structurally impossible.
Feel: Institutional, architectural, permanent
The Electric Future
Use the pivot to electric vehicles as a clean break. Make the diesel era feel like a different company. Forward momentum rather than backward apology.
Feel: Forward-looking, decisive, transformational
The Accountability Report
Publish ongoing, independently audited compliance reporting. Let third parties verify what VW claims. Turn transparency into competitive advantage.
Feel: Rigorous, verifiable, trust-building
What Actually Happened
VW paid over $30 billion in fines, settlements, and buyback costs globally. CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned within a week and was later criminally charged. The company launched a massive pivot to electric vehicles, investing €73 billion in electrification and digital technology. The “Way Forward” strategy repositioned VW around electric mobility. In the US, VW ran a “Drive Bigger” campaign attempting to rebuild the brand around purpose. The scandal’s shadow diminished but never fully disappeared.
What We Can Learn
- The electric vehicle pivot provided a genuine strategic break from the diesel era, giving stakeholders something forward-looking to evaluate
- The scale of financial penalties ($30bn+) served as proof of accountability more convincingly than any communications campaign could
- Early attempts to blame individuals (“a few rogue engineers”) backfired when the systemic nature of the fraud became clear
- Recovery took five years and required genuine product transformation, not just messaging transformation
- The case demonstrates that deliberate deception requires structural proof of change, because cultural assurances from a company that lied are worthless