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In June 2016, Vahidin Feriz, CEO of Car Trim, a Prevent subsidiary, received an ominous fax message. The news was grim. Volkswagen, one of Car Trim’s principal customers, was informing Feriz that it would cancel a €500 million joint development project, alleging quality defects in Car Trim’s leather seats. Volkswagen, under significant financial pressure as a result of its recent diesel emissions scandal, gave only two days’ notice.1 Car Trim sued. When Volkswagen refused to pay damages, Car Trim and ES Guss, another Prevent company, halted all supplies, forcing Volkswagen to interrupt production at six of its plants and idle nearly 30,000 employees.
Payback came two years later. When Prevent attempted to raise ...
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