[Introduction: Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson, who has just passed his 71st birthday, officially announced his retirement, and former Dyson CEO Jim Rowan officially began to serve as the CEO and president of Volvo, a Nordic luxury brand, on March 21, 2022. 】
Written| by Zhang Chi and edited by | Kang Qiao
After helping Volvo complete the IPO, Samuelsen can also be regarded as a retiree; the biggest label of successor Rowan is that he was once the head of Dyson. We don't know dyson's previous overseas business performance, but we have to say that during the time when Dyson was in Rowan's home, Dyson was sold "flowers" in China. Dyson vacuum cleaners were expensive for a time in Luoyang and became a popular Internet celebrity product for China's middle class.
Rowan will face a big test at the beginning of his tenure
Today's Volvo is at a crossroads of transformation. The dividends from being acquired by Geely in 2010 have been released, and it has drawn a successful IPO in the second half of 2021 to a successful IPO for the first decade. In 2022, models based on Volvo's new generation SPA2 platform will gradually come on the market to replace the models of spa platforms that have been available for many years. Among them, volvo's flagship pure electric SUV, the first SPA2 platform model launched at the end of 2022, is the most anticipated by all parties. Therefore, Rowan can be described as a fireline franchise this time.
In the context of volvo's main competitors in the world have made efforts to make pure electric vehicles, whether this XC90, which is regarded as a pure electric version by the outside world, can be a hit will directly determine whether Volvo's pure electrification transformation can be successful. Especially considering that whether it is Luminar lidar, Qualcomm's intelligent cockpit platform and Google's car networking system and other configurations have been launched, Ride Pilot autonomous driving is also likely to open a subscription function on this model, Volvo includes the technology that can be used and the suppliers that can be assembled. So this is a battle that Volvo can't lose, and it's a battle that Rowan can't lose.
I have to mention dyson's car-making experience
Dyson's previous car-making experience is also much concerned by all parties, Dyson set up a relatively complete research and development team at that time, and even once built a prototype car, but in the end its car-making plan was stopped by dyson's founder, and the failure was also to make all parties sigh. Rowan should be one of the leaders or deep participants in dyson's electric vehicle project during that time.
The road to car building is full of ninety-nine eighty-one difficulties. With Dyson's size, it is indeed difficult to complete the road of building a car on its own. However, from the current experience of Wei Xiaoli, who is red and purple in China, Dyson has outperformed these new domestic car companies in terms of low-level core technologies such as motors, solid-state batteries, and robots, as well as in terms of brand and market appeal. At present, these new forces car companies have not only achieved IPOs in the United States and Hong Kong through pre-financing, but also gradually gained a foothold in the domestic market and become a car-making force that cannot be ignored. So from this point of view, Dyson's decision to give up building cars at that time was not wise.
Although Dyson did not give up on continuing to invest in research and development in many underlying technologies after giving up car building. But unless there is a generational lead over competitors in performance, it is not easy for Dyson to occupy a place in the core components of intelligent and connected cars. Being able to take charge of Volvo Cars this time will undoubtedly allow Rowan to continue his previous dream of building a car. In particular, Volvo has a more complete car-making system capability, which allows Rowan to implement all the ideas that were not realized on Dyson electric vehicles before. So if Rowan can lead Volvo to create an electric car that can match Tesla, it will inevitably break all the previous doubts about Dyson's car.
The transformation of the automotive industry begins with talent
In fact, through the domestic new forces of car-making enterprises, it can be found that cross-border cars can also be built well. Wei Xiaoli's entrepreneurs are full of Internet genes. They have injected great vitality into the traditional automotive industry, allowing domestic consumers to feel the services of the Internet in the automotive industry for the first time. Under the impact of new forces, traditional car companies are losing ground in the field of electric vehicles, especially in the high-end electric vehicle market, even if they are as strong as BBA or Volkswagen and Toyota, it is difficult to sit on an equal footing with new forces such as Wei Xiaoli in the domestic market. The new forces created by traditional automakers, including Aichi, Weima and Skyrim, have also shown their decline in competition with Wei Xiaoli.
So from this point of view, Rowan's lack of experience in the automotive industry, far from being his weakness, may become his advantage. Managers from traditional manufacturing or marketing positions will be bound by the experience of automobile operations in the past few decades, but there is no way to truly form a design concept starting from customer pain points in a short period of time. For Rowan, a crossover person, what to avoid is to rigidly copy Dyson's experience, as long as it can organically combine past experience and experience in the automotive industry, it will inevitably bring more new ideas and new ways of playing for Volvo's design and sales.
Comments
Volvo's choice of Rowan at this current point in time is a bit of a gamble for this traditional car company with a history of nearly a hundred years. However, Ford, on the other hand, has also recruited Boeing executive Mullari to help Ford successfully avoid the impact of the 2008 financial crisis, avoid bankruptcy, and maximize Ford's interests. Volvo is not in danger of bankruptcy today, but it is also in a critical period of transition to electric vehicles, and it is also a transformation that cannot be failed. How Well Rowan performed can be seen at the end of the year.
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