UITENHAGE-BASED Volkswagen South Africa has been judged one of the best companies to work for in South Africa as well as one of South Africa's top companies in an independent survey conducted by the Cape Town-based Corporate Research Foundation (CRF). This is the second successive occasion that Volkswagen has achieved this award. Volkswagen South Africa - which led the new car market in 2001 and reported turnover nearing R10 billion - is featured in the latest edition of South Africa's Most Promising Companies as well as The Best Companies to Work for in South Africa, both of which were published by Zebra and the CRF. "This publication, the third edition, analyses companies in terms of their core values, competitiveness and potential to take the country into the future. Many of the companies profiled in the book are the crown jewels of South African business," said CRF spokesperson Janine Nel. Volkswagen South Africa is given an "excellent" rating for flexibility and innovation, quality of management and international orientation. It also receives high marks for human resource priorities and growth of markets. "Volkswagen SA has transformed itself through an often painful process into a world-class supplier of high-tech vehicles and components," according to the CRF survey. "The biggest challenge facing the company is that it is a "low-volume" manufacturer in global terms. It has to justify its existence in the face of worldwide over-capacity, perceptions of labour volatility, crime, HIV/AIDS, regional unemployment, currency fluctuations and problems elsewhere in Africa," it adds. However, the company is rising to the challenges. Volkswagen SA has more than doubled its market share since the 1980's. The company has also been successfully exporting cars for the past decade, beginning with exports of Jetta 2's to China in the early 1990s. Today, Volkswagen SA supplies 30 000 left and right-hand drive Golf 4s a year to Europe. These exports generate about R3 billion in foreign exchange earnings for the Uitenhage-based manufacturer, making it one of the leading vehicle exporters from Africa for the past three years. It also has a component export programme, which includes catalytic converters, engines, alloy wheels, rubber-metal parts, which added R1,6 billion to Volkswagen SA's export earnings in 2001. These successes have been achieved through a combination of investment in appropriate technology and a fundamental change in mind-set from the factory floor to top management. "Volkswagen SA is a successful exporter because both workers and management believe that it is a world-class supplier which is based in Africa for solid business reasons, rather than being an African assembly operation," says the CRF report. It highlights "flexibility" as one of the strongest characteristics of the modern Volkswagen South Africa. "Volkswagen SA is the first vehicle assembler in Africa to build to order. This means that a customer in Birmingham, Bonn or Benoni can order the Golf 4 he or she wants - and it will be built to their colour, trim and accessory specifications. Many of these choices can be changed just four weeks before work starts on the vehicle. In order to provide customers with this level of choice, Volkswagen SA has to co-ordinate supplies from companies around the world. Then, on the production line, these components have to be married to individual cars," says the report. "Global manufacturers based in South Africa also have to be financially flexible. VWSA saw the Rand drop by 40 per cent in six months against the Euro in 2001. Management admit this could have been a fatal blow to the company had it not been able to adapt right across the organisation - from the production line to the finance department. "Volkswagen also uses "transparent" management to share business issues, challenges and opportunities with all levels of staff. "Training also enjoys a high priority. The VW Education and Training Institute (ETI) has grown into a self-supporting unit which even trains personnel for opposition motor companies, as well as for component suppliers. Management development programmes are helping to develop the organisation's leaders of tomorrow." Corporate Research Foundation is an independent international organisation that initiates, co-ordinates and delivers international business research projects worldwide. CRF originated in the Netherlands in 1992 and today has offices in nine countries on three continents. The South African office has been in operation since 1997.