Rolls-Royce Motor Cars PressClub · Article.
A GRAND SUCCESSION: FROM CLAUDE JOHNSON TO TORSTEN MÜLLER-ÖTVÖS
14.11.2023 Press Release
As Rolls-Royce Motor Cars marks the retirement of Torsten Müller-Ötvös after almost 14 years as its Chief Executive Officer, the company reflects on Claude Johnson – the only person in the marque’s history to have held the top job for longer.
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Author.
Andrew Ball
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
- Rolls-Royce Motor Cars reflects on the lasting influence of the company’s first chief executive, Claude Goodman Johnson (24 October 1864 - 11 April 1926)
- A gifted publicist and marketer who became known as ‘the hyphen in Rolls-Royce’
- Managed the company from 1906 until his death 20 years later
- Retiring in November 2023 after almost 14 years, Torsten Müller-Ötvös is the longest-serving CEO of the modern era, and second only to Johnson in time at the head of the marque
- Continued a long line of influential Rolls-Royce CEOs who shaped both the company and the wider automotive and luxury industries during their tenure
“Though perhaps less familiar in the public mind, Claude Johnson
is probably the most important and influential figure in the annals
of Rolls-Royce apart from the founders themselves. As we mark the
retirement of Torsten Müller-Ötvös after almost 14 years as our
Chief Executive Officer, this seemed the ideal moment to shine a
light on the only person in the marque’s history to have held the
top job for longer. A larger-than-life character, Johnson was
evidently a force to be reckoned with; it was his energy,
enthusiasm, vision and dedication that made Rolls-Royce a household
name around the world. Even today, he's still known as ‘the hyphen
in Rolls-Royce’ – a fitting tribute to a truly remarkable man.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage,
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
A BIG PERSONALITY
The Hon Charles Stewart Rolls first met Henry Royce
in Manchester on 4 May 1904. On his return to London, the first person
he told about his historic encounter was his business partner, Claude Johnson.
Large-framed, broad-shouldered and extrovert, Johnson was 13
years Rolls’ senior. A gifted marketer and organiser, he began his
career running scientific and trade exhibitions, then spent six lively
years as the very first Secretary of the Automobile Club of Great
Britain and Ireland, which would become the Royal Automobile Club (RAC).
In 1903, he joined C S Rolls & Co, one of Britain’s
first-ever car dealerships, which Rolls had established in January of
the previous year. When Rolls and Royce set up their new company
following their 1904 meeting, Johnson brought much-needed commercial
acumen and financial backing to the fledgling enterprise.
MAKING HIS MARK
In 1906 Johnson became the first Commercial Managing Director of
Rolls-Royce Limited, taking on the job of sales and marketing. A
natural showman with a prodigious talent for generating publicity (for
himself, as well as the company) it was a task to which he was ideally
suited, and applied himself with both great zeal and tremendous
success. It was he who persuaded Royce to refine the company’s
offering to a single model, the 40/50 H.P., which became world-famous
under the name Johnson coined for it – the Silver Ghost. It was
Johnson who also overcame Royce’s numerous objections and convinced
him of the virtues of offering to supply every Rolls-Royce motor car
with an official mascot. More than a century later, the Spirit of
Ecstasy, designed by the sculptor Charles Sykes, remains one of the
world’s most recognisable and desirable brand emblems.
A FRIEND INDEED
In 1911, after years of accumulated stress and overwork, Royce’s
health collapsed. As part of his recuperation, Johnson took him on an
extended road trip through Europe to Egypt. During a stop in the South
of France on the return journey, Royce became enchanted with the tiny
hamlet of Le Canadel, near Nice. Johnson knew his man, and promptly
bought a parcel of land, where he commissioned a new house for Royce,
plus a smaller villa for visiting draughtsmen and assistants. For the
rest of his life, Royce (very sensibly) spent his winters working from
home at Le Canadel, and from 1917, summers at his beloved Elmstead in
West Wittering, West Sussex.
‘THE HYPHEN IN ROLLS-ROYCE’
Johnson remained in charge of Rolls-Royce until his death in
1926, at the age of 61. His 20 years at the helm make him the
longest-serving chief executive in the company’s history. His
influence on the marque was wide-ranging, profound and indelible;
indeed, such was his pivotal importance to its growth and success, he
is still known today as ‘the hyphen in Rolls-Royce’.
WORTHY SUCCESSORS
The job title of Rolls-Royce’s most senior executive changed
over time. Johnson was Commercial Managing Director; those who
followed him were referred to as Chairman, then Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) – the designation still in use today. Of Claude
Johnson’s successors in the years prior to the present-day Goodwood
era, two in particular stand out for their lasting contributions to
the company’s identity and commercial success.
DRIVEN TO SUCCEED
Ernest Hives worked as Charles Rolls’ chauffeur, then in the
workshop at C S Rolls & Co, before joining Rolls-Royce as an
experimental tester in 1908. In this capacity, he took part in the
15,000-mile endurance test of 1907, and the famous 1911 London to
Edinburgh run with the cars locked in top gear only; in the same year,
he became the first to exceed 100mph in a Silver Ghost (chassis 1701).
He also headed up the Rolls-Royce works team, again with Silver Ghost
cars, on the legendary 1913 Alpine Trial, which cemented Rolls-Royce’s
reputation as ‘the best car in the world’.
Armed with the in-depth engineering knowledge he gained on these
events, Hives set up a fully-fledged experimental department, which
helped develop Rolls-Royce’s aero engines as well as its automotive
products. In 1937 he was appointed a Board Director and General Works
Manager; his most significant act was to split the company’s car
(chassis) and aero engine operations into two independent entities,
which remains the case to this day. During the Second World War, Hives
oversaw production of some 160,000 Merlin aero engines; he was also a
staunch and early champion of the emerging jet-engine technology.
In 1946, Hives became Managing Director and in 1950, Chairman of
the Board. The man who at 17 had been Charles Rolls’ chauffeur was now
head of his former employer’s eponymous company. He retired in 1957.
A COMPLETE CHANGE
In 1945, Dr Frederick Llewellyn Smith – known simply as ‘Doc’ –
was given the daunting job of converting Rolls-Royce’s factory in
Crewe from its wartime role making Merlin aero engines to civilian car
production. To his role as a Main Board Director and Managing Director
of the Motor Car Division, he brought not only great organisational
skills, but an uncanny knack of foreseeing future trends.
On a visit to the USA in 1950, he became convinced that the
traditional British coachwork still being fitted to many Rolls-Royce
chassis was hopelessly outdated, and that a ‘new look’ was urgently
needed. Under his auspices, the marque produced the Silver Dawn and
highly successful Silver Cloud, the first complete cars (chassis plus
bodies) ever to be designed and built in a Rolls-Royce factory. Even
these pioneering models were fairly conventional: it would be with the
Silver Shadow that his bold vision was finally realised with its
chassis-less, semi-monocoque design. The advanced engineering was
ahead of its time, and the Silver Shadow became the best-selling
Rolls-Royce of the entire pre-Goodwood era. Popular with the
workforce, Doc succeeded Ernest Hives as Chairman, a post he held
until his retirement in 1967.
INTO THE MODERN ERA
In 2010, the baton passed to Torsten Müller-Ötvös,
who has led Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for almost 14 years – the
second-longest tenure of any Chief Executive since Johnson himself.
Like his 20th Century predecessors, Torsten has overseen a
complete transformation of the brand and its products. Dawn, Wraith,
Cullinan and the Black Badge family have all been introduced under his
leadership, which has also seen a huge expansion in Bespoke and the
renaissance of coachbuilding as a permanent capability. In 2022,
Torsten guided the company into the future originally prophesied by
Rolls in 1900 with the launch of the first all-electric Rolls-Royce, Spectre.
Torsten retires on 30 November 2023. His successor is Chris
Brownridge, who joins Rolls‑Royce having previously served as CEO of
BMW UK.