Volkswagen recently
advertised in India the commercial launch of its iconic small car, Beetle.
Sporting the almost similar exterior that made the car a folklore for decades
from its first launch in 1938, the Beetle of today incorporates ultra-modern
technologies. The author of this blog post is gratified that the launch
coincides with the topic of retro-futurism which the author has discussed in
his recent blog post titled “What Palm Holds, Eyes Behold: The Retro-Futurism
of iPhone SE”, Strategy Musings, April 18, 2016. (http://cbrao2008.blogspot.in/2016/04/what-palm-holds-eyes-behold-retro.html).
Without doubt, the arrival of Beetle in a new avatar is a striking example of
retro-futurism, and reinforces the insights of the previous blog and offers
additional perspectives.
Some
comparisons and contrasts with Apple SE are also inevitable and quite
necessary.
Fundamentally, Apple SE being an electronic product and Beetle being
an automotive product they are as different as chalk and cheese in design,
manufacture and usage. Yet, they represent, in real time context, the relevance
and practicality of retro-futurism as a concept. They also demonstrate that ‘retro’
can be as recent as four years (as is the case with Apple SE) and as distanced
as eighty years (as is the case with Beetle). Given the thousands of products
that have been designed, developed and used as well as rendered obsolete and
phased out over all through the four hundred years of successive industrial
revolutions, the impact of retro-futurism as a practical paradigm is
self-evident.
Origins, growth and decline
The first
Beetle was designed as an idea by Joseph Ganz, a Jewish Engineer in early 1930s.
Adolf Hitler, however, grabbed the concept and ordered Porsche to develop a
Volkswagen (literally, a “people’s car”). The design and manufacture of the
Beetle including building of Volkswagen factory was completed in the late 1930s.
Enduring the trials and tribulations of successive world wars, Beetle survived
to grow as the most sustained small car design, and Volkswagen as the most
dominant European automobile company. The Beetle was designed as a basic small
family car at the cost of a motor cycle to transport two adults and three
children (Is not Tata Nano a retro-futuristic concept?). It was one of the
first to have air cooled rear engine and chassis mounted on torsion bars, and a
roundish body looking like a bug!
In its long
history, over 21 million Beetles were produced. Beetle’s most successful period
was the decade of the 1960s, with it becoming a favourite all over the Americas
and Europe. However, the emergence of new global designs, especially from
Japan, brought its glory down. Volkswagen had to officially end the declining
production run of Beetle in 2003, worldwide. There is no denying that Beetle
was the most successful rear engine design and had little spec to spec competition
in its class. Volkswagen itself had to go through several iterations before its
successor Golf could be perfected and popularized.
Interestingly,
Volkswagen attempted to update Beetle in 1995 itself with a redesigned vehicle
based on its Polo platform. It had the same exterior but used a higher horsepower
engine and multi-speed gearbox. The final edition of the New Beetle happened in
2010, marking the demise of the New Beetle as well. The phase-out of the New
Beetle demonstrates that there is a difference between the ongoing requirement for
annual updating of automobiles and retro-futurism as a distinctive repositioning.
Typically, retro-futurism needs to deploy a few breakthrough approaches to breathe
new life into the retro designs.
Upgrade versus reinvention
Over the first
twenty years, Beetle had continuous upgrades which by today’s standards would look
very marginal. For example, the engine capacity moved from 1 litre to 1.2 litre
and engine power moved from 24 HP to 36 HP. Elimination of starter button,
repositioning of ash trays, redesign of bumpers, windows, turn lights and
fenders were all that to claim for upgrades. The first syncromesh gear box did
not arrive till the 1960s. Such minor changes continued to propel Beetle until
the fade-away years of the 1970s, which brought hot new competitive designs
from Japan on one hand and stringent fuel economy and emission standards in US
and Europe on the other. Yet, supported by improvements like electronic fuel
injection internally and convertible body designs externally, Beetle moved on
with a niche positioning until the complete phase-out in 2003.
Volkswagen
realized that notwithstanding the decline in sales, there was a huge reservoir
of goodwill for Beetle as a design concept and owner experience. The New Beetle
which was designed in the late 1990s was aimed at making the car contemporary
with 1.8 litre capacity engine developing 150 HP, transverse mounting of
engine, nippier drive train, independent suspension, bright colours, ABS
brakes, high intensity discharge headlights, traction control, and other
stylistic changes. Yet, the combination of the largely untouched Beetle
exterior profile and the more powerful Golf internals as the new Beetle was not
enough to fuel a new rally for the new Beetle. This is ample proof that
retro-futuristic designs must not only retain the best of the old but also
integrate the best of the future.
Digital Beetle 2016
After decades
of incremental mechanical engineering as above, the Beetle is now reinvented as
Beetle for the millennials’ era incorporating digital technologies to make the
much loved buggy car future-proof. It is a combination of classic style and contemporary
engineering in a future-ready digital platform. It retains the iconic two-door
design and rear wheel drive but has now a larger engine series capable of delivering
up to around 200 HP of power and up to around 30 KgM of torque, previously
unthinkable for such a compact car. It also sports a seven speed automatic
transmission, large alloy wheels, keyless starter, light sensing Xenon
headlamps, electronic braking distribution, anti-lock braking system, traction
control, electronic stability programme, six air bags and digital multimedia.
It features all the digital bells and whistles that make travel in a contemporary
car a joyous ride of safety and pleasure.
With affordable
pricing, the Digital Beetle could scale up to sell in millions again. With premium
pricing it could just be an everlasting niche product, selling in just
thousands. Either way, the product could continue to retain its iconic status
even decades later. Beetle reflects the requirements of retro-futurism brought
up in the earlier piece on Apple SE: (i) A product should be developed with a
state of elegance that could enable it to qualify itself as a new product even
years later, (ii) Recalling a retro design has to be more than for emotional or
reminiscence reasons; it should bring the latest technologies within the
restored contours, (iii) The higher the size of the industry market base (and
its growth rate), the greater is the potential for retro-futuristic products,
(iv) Retro-futurism is not about using old dies, moulds or chassis for cheap products
but is more about creating superior products with re-optimized cost and
technology balance, and (v) importantly, Retro-futurism should never be mere
refurbishment; it must be on reinventing the ‘old’ as a contemporaneously
relevant ‘new’.
Living legacies
Additionally,
however, there are a few important lessons from Beetle that supplement the
above. It is not uncommon to have legends and legacies. What is relatively
uncommon is for such legends and legacies to live on physically across
generations, which is not impossible as Beetle demonstrates. The enduring living
legacy principles are as follows.
Inspirational designs have no expiration risk. As demonstrated by Apple SE and Beetle, inspired, and inspiring,
design have no shelf life. They can survive and succeed in perpetuity. Indian
epics and Raja Ravi Varma paintings are irrefutable evidence on an entirely
different level. This is because inspirational designs and products appeal to
the spirit as much as to the eye.
Structured teams can continuously develop innovative themes to
perpetuity. History has it that Beetle concept
was the brainchild of one innovative designer, way back in 1930s. By virtue of
the design getting passed to Porsche, the established car maker, the concept
became a reality, with continuous updates by Volkswagen teams. Designers and
Developers in harmony can embed lasting value in products.
What lasts in crisis outlasts competition. Beetle was a pre-World War car. Though essentially a civilian
design, the product was hijacked for military purposes. Its manufacturing facility
was ravaged in bombings. Lasting through the crises, Beetle proved its mettle
as a product that is crisis-proof, and hence as a product of sustainable
success over generations.
Global businesses can be built on single but marvellous products. Many companies and leaders believe that they require multiple
products to scale up, more so globally. While such a strategy has its relevance,
Beetle is one example (along with scores of others) that one great product can create,
or at least lay a lasting foundation for, a global corporation. Sony, Intel, Microsoft,
Facebook, Google, and several other global corporations, each founded on just
one core product, are living examples.
Glorious past gives lasting legacies but unflinching faith shapes
living legacies. Managements that are driven by
numbers of margins and viability as well as phase-outs and fade-outs lose track
of the evergreens they have in their midst. It requires more than ordinary
managerial skill and leadership insights to identify, support and nurture designs
and products of perpetual value.
It is an evolved
human characteristic to be creative and innovative and to constantly invent or
discover something new, and build new businesses around it. While there can be
no two opinions that it is a natural path, it is equally important to retain
the soul and spirit of the original innovation and creativity. The paradigm of living
legacies, as discussed herein, inspires us to recognize that certain types of
unique innovation and creativity are everlasting in nature.
Posted by Dr CB
Rao on April 28, 2016
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