Today he works in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen and builds dream cars himself. At a scale of 1:1. Reimold is the Member of the Executive Board for Production and Logistics at Porsche AG. Guests to his office in the middle of the site can take an extraordinary trip back through his professional life. Many of his projects are commemorated by suitable model cars, which are carefully stored and displayed on the shelves. The stories behind these cars are told by the passionate collector himself.

Reimold points to a photo of his yellow 911 Targa. This sports car was his 60ᵗʰ birthday present to himself. It combines the traditional genes of Porsche with the feats of cutting-edge technology. The front hood is a work of art. Reimold had two longitudinal black stripes featuring an outsized rendering of his fingerprint added to the paint job. For the Porsche paint shop that’s nothing special anymore. It’s standard practice made possible by digital printing techniques. “Anyone can order personalized extras like this from us,” notes Reimold. Porsche’s customers, after all, love individualization.

A passion for sustainability

Before elaborating on special extra features, Reimold turns his full attention to the underlying resources. Along with fellow board member Barbara Frenkel (Purchasing), he is Porsche’s principal sponsor of sustainability. His devotion to the topic was evident immediately upon arrival at Porsche in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen from Volkswagen Slovakia in Bratislava in February 2016. “The first thing I did was shift our electrical power supply to renewable sources. That,” he adds, “was an obvious step.” As he explains, “You don’t need any regulations to take initiatives like that. It starts with the right inner attitude.” This outlook should help Porsche reduce CO₂ emissions successively throughout the value chain for its cars. “Sustainability is an integral part of the Porsche brand and of our company strategy,” says Reimold, who considers all of Porsche’s employees active contributors to the process.

How to mobilize an entire workforce for a common cause? “Motivation, further training, and continuous dialogue are how we reach our goals,” says Reimold. “With an unswerving focus on quality and efficiency in production.” However, internal factors alone are not enough, because 80 percent of the cars’ components come from suppliers. “We take all the suppliers on board just like we do with our own teams,” says the board member. “We don’t differentiate in that respect. Our shared goal is to make our customers’ dreams come true. Craftsmanship, coupled with industrial thinking and superior technology—that is what Porsche is known for.”

Successful examples of that approach include the four production projects that the Stuttgart-based sports-car manufacturer started in 2024 alone. “Our team put in a superb performance with the launch of the new Panamera and Macan and the updated Taycan and 911,” says Reimold with evident approval. He highlights the role of collaboration above and beyond all departmental boundaries. Another key factor consists of clear milestone planning by the launch management teams—from installing equipment and starting operations to ramping up production. That would not be possible without committed personnel. “You have to be utterly devoted to success,” says Reimold.

You don’t have to know everything yourself

Reimold also places a premium on the continuous exchange of expertise, ideally across generations. He therefore regularly invites production employees to spend three months directly observing what he does. “This lets me get to know talented individuals, and gives them a chance to see what a board member actually does all day,” he says. “I can learn a lot from talking with young people in particular. That’s especially true for future-oriented topics like artificial intelligence and digitalization.”

That outlook goes in line with one of the production head’s maxims: You don’t have to know everything yourself but you do have to know where to get that knowledge. “I’ve followed this principle throughout my professional stations at Audi, Volkswagen, and Lamborghini. For me, strong teamwork consists of complementing each others’ skills and abilities while bringing different character strengths to bear in the best ways.” Reimold praises the Porsche spirit as a driving force here. “We always want to lead the way,” he says. This ambition can’t be taken for granted. It depends above all on “a constant readiness for change.”

Anyone who seeks to excite as many people as possible about the future will need to draw on inspiration. In fact, there can never be enough of it. Here, too, Reimold highlights the role of the entire team. “We have our own innovation task force. Anyone with a good idea can present it to the committee. If the idea is sufficiently promising, they’ll get enough funding to test it. After three or four months we look at the project together to see what it has yielded. This method has enabled us to bring at least 30 innovations a year into series production. And it has fostered a real culture among our employees. Together, they want to help Porsche advance.”

Plugging holes─with pads from Tesa

Some of these innovations might seem trivial to outsiders at first glance. Yet as is well known, even seemingly minor changes can have long-lasting effects. Reimold is ready with one of his favorite examples. It comes from the Porsche paint shop. To seal a car body, workers used to have to close the many small openings needed in its underbody with plastic plugs, by hand, while standing under the vehicle and reaching up. “The ergometrics were tiring, complicated, and really bothersome for our people,” recalls Reimold. But someone in the paint shop came up with a better solution. Instead of plugging the holes, they could patch them with stable pads, dispensed from a roll. Just like the way price stickers are applied to products in a supermarket.

A subsidiary of Hamburg’s Beiersdorf Group was quickly identified as a partner, namely Tesa, a specialist in adhesive films with decades of experience in both household products and industrial projects. Following joint deliberations, the team developed adhesive pads as a fully fledged replacement for the synthetic plugs: one millimeter thick, absolutely leakproof, tough, and durable. The team also developed an automated application system. “Instead of us doing this strenuous and troublesome job by hand, a robot now patches the holes in the underbody,” says Reimold. Right on the mark. He is also pleased that this approach to corrosion resistance has taken root at other paint shops in the Volkswagen Group—“because it’s simply a superb idea.”

For an idea to become an innovation, three criteria have to be met: It has to be new and unique, provide demonstrable customer benefit, and bring real added value to the company. Reimold wants to ensure suitable conditions. “Innovations have to be hunted down. For that you need courage and creativity. Creating a conducive climate for this to happen is the job of people in leadership positions.”

Craftsmanship has a future

For all the technological progress, Reimold, who concluded his toolmaking apprenticeship by winning a Germany-wide competition, has never underestimated the value of craftsmanship. It is all the more important for a luxury-car maker like Porsche. “Quality in combination with individuality—that’s what sets us apart. It’s why we train people in interior production and design. They’re the people with the all-important expertise in leather-working and upholstery. Other examples include the company’s car body construction and the paint shop. These too are areas where we need highly skilled employees who are masters at working with different surfaces, including innovative, extremely lightweight carbon-fiber materials.”

Reimold and his colleagues in the Production and Logistics division are also at work on further innovations. Exciting ones. But he declines to reveal them just yet. One thing is certain, however: Future milestones will be marked by additions to his model car collection. “Speaking of model cars,” says Reimold at the end. “My first little 911 from 1965, from the stationery store, has gone missing. I’ve been looking for it for a while now. But someday I’ll find it again!”