What does our future look like?
Each year we bring together leaders from across our business to examine the strategic direction of our company. Let’s take a look at what they covered at this year’s gathering.
We’re transforming our business – success depends on all parts of our company having a voice when we talk strategy.
What product am I buying and what does it include? What’s the price? When can I get it? If we can answer these clear and crucial consumer questions before our competitors, while building strong emotional consumer connections, our chances to come out as a winner are good.
It’s indeed an exciting time to work at our company: every day, we’re getting closer to delivering on our mid-decade ambitions. When Business Year 2024 goes live in two years we'll have good answers to the three questions above – that is, if we deliver.
Of course, our ambitions will not deliver themselves. They require our joint and focused efforts. So how do we ensure everyone’s onboard with what needs to be done by 2025?
At last week’s Strategic Dialogue in Torslanda, Sweden some 140 people representing various parts of our company gathered to discuss topics that are crucial to what we want to achieve. This included how we’ll sell our upcoming flagship SUV model online, the future distribution model required to support our commercial transformation, and a demo of our upcoming small SUV model. Topics also included our consumer offer, quality with a focus on software and, last but not least, a UK pilot on the challenges of ‘flipping’ a market into a new business model.
As you can imagine, the six areas outlined above are not without challenges – which is precisely why they were pinpointed for the discussions.
“We gather leaders from many places and different levels and areas to discuss and co-create, align on the direction going forward and bring the discussions back to their teams.”
“We have the Strategic Dialogue events in order to create strategic alignment across the company,” said our chief product officer Henrik Green. “We gather leaders from many places and different levels and areas to discuss and co-create, align on the direction going forward and bring the discussions back to their teams.”
Our chief executive Håkan Samuelsson presented a clear picture of the mindset needed to be an aspiring industry leader and the fastest transformer in the automotive business.
“We're seeing a massive change in how we do business as a company and we really need to understand why we’re doing this,” Håkan said. “If we do things right, we’ll be a step ahead of our competitors. We need to be self-confident to dare to be at the forefront.”
Strategic Dialogues are dialogue-focused, aiming to inspire, challenge, engage and set strategies in motion. But the idea is not just for the participants to discuss important topics and exchange ideas during the event itself. They’re also expected to bring the discussions back to their teams to inspire and make sure that everyone is onboard on where we’re headed and why.
You’ll get to learn more about the topics discussed in more articles to come in the next few months, so stay tuned.
