“There’s a lot to do,” admits McLaren CEO Michael Leiters, who has been in one of the industry’s toughest yet potentially most rewarding jobs since July 1 last year. “It’s definitely challenging – but I think it’s the most exciting job in the automotive industry.”
We first spoke to Leiters just a few weeks into the job, when he ran through the lengthy to-do list: improve the quality and reliability of the cars, shore up the supply chain, deliver the troubled Artura hybrid supercar production, return to profitability… With a list like that, where do you start?
We met again this week at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where Leiters detailed the progress he’d made. He started with the company’s culture, making everything “very, very strictly orientated on output, on efficiency, on affecting the quality, with the customer experience at the centre of it all. We have increased dramatically the engagement of our people, and are communicating a lot more than in the past”.
As well as the culture, the internal structure has also changed, with 11 layers of company management reduced to five. “This allows much more direct communication for everybody, right up to the very top,” says Leiters.
The financial part “has been the most challenging” though, according to Leiters, and McLaren remains in the red. Although revenues increased by £7.2 million in Q1 of 2023 over 2022 to £135.2m, losses increased by £17.2m to £57.9m as it sold more vehicles at a lower price. The rest of the year will remain just as challenging, as Artura production is yet to be at full capacity and the 720S is changing over to the 750S on the Woking production line.
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