By Nicola Leske and Edward Taylor
FRANKFURT, July 23 (Reuters) - Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piech once said of Wendelin Wiedeking that the one thing the chief executive of sportscar maker Porsche lacked was a real failure.
Not any more. Wiedeking was forced to step down on Thursday, defeated in the power struggle over Porsche's future.
Wiedeking has been credited with turning the sportscar manufacturer into one of the world's most profitable auto firms, but he leaves it with more than 10 billion euros in debt as part of a bungled attempt to win control over Volkswagen.
The attempt backfired when the credit crisis began, crippling Porsche's ability to pay down debt.
His downfall comes after almost two decades of success for the sportscar maker, based in Zuffenhausen, which are inextricably linked to Wiedeking and what he calls his relentless focus on profitability.
"My teachers were liberals, as were my fellow students, and they all had long hair. I always just wanted to make money," Wiedeking has said of himself.
A mechanical engineer by training, he joined Porsche in 1983, aged 31. After a stint at an auto-parts maker he returned to Porsche as head of production in 1991 before taking over two years later as CEO when Porsche was close to bankruptcy.
Industry analysts believed the carmaker could not survive on its own, but Wiedeking, who says he made his first million by the age of 30 with real estate investments, took on the challenge.
NO RISK, NO FUN
Wiedeking, then 40 years old, who with his spectacles and moustache looked like "a clerk at a venetian blinds manufacturer", according to Der Spiegel magazine, soon imposed his gung-ho management style on the workforce.
Within two years he managed a surprise turnaround by trimming the product line-up, modernising the production system based on Toyota's lean manufacturing system, and negotiating new work rules with the unions.
"'No risk, no fun' is my motto," he has said.
Wiedeking dropped the unprofitable 928 and 968 models, overhauled the iconic 911 and developed two new models, the Boxster convertible and the Cayenne SUV.
Taking big risks helped Wiedeking become the best paid executive in Germany in 2008, reaping an estimated 80 million euros in salary after profits exceeded revenue thanks to windfall gains from financial instruments linked to VW shares.
UNDERDOG MENTALITY
Wiedeking cultivates an image as a blue-collar underdog, saying he enjoys meeting up with farmers after driving his Porsche tractor near his potato field.
Born in 1952 in the town of Ahlen in Westphalia, he now calls the small village of Bietigheim outside Stuttgart home.
When it comes to Porsche, he reaches for biblical analogies, comparing the carmakers' comeback against the odds to the unevenly matched confrontation between David and Goliath.
Porsche's stealth takeover of VW was one of Wiedeking's favourite examples of the small car maker punching above its weight. "Because nobody had this on their radar, it struck like a thunderbolt," Wiedeking said.
In March 2008 Porsche had still claimed it "denies reports in the media which claim that the enterprise intends to increase its stake in VW to 75 percent".
Investors were surprised when Porsche then revealed in October 2008 that it was seeking control over a 75 percent stake in Europe's largest carmaker.
Wiedeking's relentless focus on profits also made him unpopular with two parties who would play a role in his downfall: Piech, VW's powerful chairman, and bankers.
Wiedeking infuriated bankers for drawing on part of a 35 billion euro loan originally requested to help finance a mandatory VW bid to bolster Porsche's profits.
Porsche boasted in February 2008 it would use 10 billion to be "invested free of risk at favourable interest rates" after the credit crisis had already begun to take its toll.
When it came time to refinance the loan this March, banks were reluctant to roll over the debt and refused more credit, forcing Porsche to abandon plans to dominate VW.
Wiedeking, who had said Porsche would never accept state aid and scoffed at companies who did, swallowed his pride and asked for a federal bailout that ultimately fell on deaf ears.
His insistence on a sharper focus on profitability at Volkswagen, where he is a board member, riled Piech who had pursued a strategy of acquisitions and developing expensive cars.
Piech flexed his muscles by temporarily blocking a cooperation agreement between Porsche and VW and beginning a campaign to force Porsche to sell its sportscar business to VW. (Editing by Peter Dinkloh and Will Waterman)