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Stefan Jacoby (Volvo Cars): "Rebuilding Swedish premium identity"
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On the 18th of August Stefan Jacoby spoke to the international press. Mister Jacoby is the new President and CEO of Volvo Cars since a few days. A few weeks before, Geely Holding Group, one of the fastest-growing car manufacturers in China, announced that it has completed the acquisition of 100 per cent of Volvo Cars from Ford Motor Company.
Stefan Jacoby, who has been the CEO of Volkswagen Group of America since 2007, commented on his new position: "I am honoured to be joining a company with the prestige and growth potential of Volvo. Our employees, suppliers, dealers – and above all our customers – can be confident that Volvo will preserve its special status as the industry leader in vehicle safety and innovation - even as it pursues new market opportunities."
During the press conference on the 18th of August Mr Jacoby underlined this statement. “It’s important that we hold on to the brand values of Volvo, values such as solidity, safety, reliability and Swedish design. Alongside these brand values Volvo has and always has had a tradition for making fantastic and emotional products. Think of the Amazon or the Volvo 121 and 122 – still great products still today.
The values remain at the foundation of the brand’s vision and future, but it may be that those values are not strong enough to attract the customer today. On the other hand is Volvo a premium brand. But what is premium today. Is it luxury, is it luxury with intelligent features or is it something more?”
To ask the question is to answer it.
Stefan Jacoby : “Just looking at the premium segment and copying what other premium brands are doing, is not enough. I think it’s important to have an internal discussion to define what Volvo stands for. We need to identify our Swedish definition of what we think premium is and what we want to offer as a premium brand. This is also essential for our future position, as we want to enter new markets, such as China for example.”
You come from one of the biggest car companies (Volkswagen) and now you’re going to run a relative small car company. What are people at Volvo expecting from you ?
Stefan Jacoby: “Maybe too much (laughs). It’s true that I come from a big company and you can say that economies of scale – especially in these times and under the current economical situation – are very important. But being big can also mean that the decision making process is more complex and takes longer, or that the translation of brand values is more complex. There are important elements other than the size of the company or economies of scale. We at Volvo have a management style that is lean and quick. This is an advantage and I believe that there are enough opportunities, the possible synergies within Geely Holding for example, to overcome the disadvantage of not having the highest level of economies of scale available to us”.
Volvo sales volumes are similar to 10 years ago. Do you know why ?
Stefan Jacoby: “It’s not my role to comment on the past. There are obviously reasons for that, but I believe we have to look to the future and not analyse the past.”
In the automotive industry there is a major technological change taking place, especially in fuels. What will the future bring in your opinion ?
Stefan Jacoby: “I believe that we are in a transition period, from traditional combustion engines to alternative powertrains. If you look back you can see that at the beginning of the 20th century there was also a mix of different types of fuels, and the combustion engine appeared to establish itself as the strongest. We are in a similar situation today with alternative fuels. Over the next 20 years or so we will see in which direction we will eventually go, but today it is still too early to say which alternative fuel will be dominant in the future. This is also impacted by the fact that elements such as technology development and infrastructure are not yet clear. It looks like the full electric vehicle is the future, but until we reach this stage there are various solutions for reducing oil consumption: bio-fuels, hybrids, twin and turbocharged engines… It is also easier for car manufacturers to develop these technologies than to immediately go to full electric vehicles. In China we expect to have 3% to 5% electric vehicles on the market over 10 years. But whatever the situation, it will be a long transition period.”
| 18/08/2010 | Steven Schoefs
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