Post by Volvo Cars

1 year in: A sit-down with Håkan Samuelsson. As of this week, it has been exactly one year since Håkan Samuelsson made his return as CEO of Volvo Cars. The mission remains clear: steady the ship, sharpen the focus on electrification, and prepare the ground for long-term success while Volvo celebrates turning 100 years old in 2027. Q: It’s been exactly one year since your return. How has the “homecoming” been? It has been a very warm welcome which has felt very good. The year has been about setting the course and taking some necessary decisions like our cost and cash action plan. We have also updated, and set, the strategic direction forward. We are now focussed on a fully electric line up, completed with plugin hybrids as a bridge solution. Soon we will see the EX60 roll off the assembly line at our plant in Torslanda Gothenburg, as a crucial step on that journey. Q: You’ve been speaking about leadership, how it requires deep operational knowledge. What does that mean for you? I think you need to know and understand the operations you’re leading. Otherwise you risk becoming just an administrator. This is important for leaders in a lean high performing organisation. This year, we pushed for us to be faster and simpler. It’s for example about asking to clarify decisions to be more efficient and questioning if we can stop doing things we do out of habit. Q: What keeps you in the office in Gothenburg every Monday morning? I’m in the office every day, when not traveling, because that’s where you get inspiration from others and where strategy and culture are built. This happens very often in spontaneous encounters rather than under planned agenda points in scheduled meetings. Q: What is the priority for the next twelve months? Overall, I believe Volvo Cars is better positioned than many of our competitors. We have already made the necessary future investments and so now we need to enter into a phase with lower investment and higher cash flow. We have taken difficult cost reduction decisions to get back into shape, but as we continue to navigate a very challenging environment we must continue to focus on efficiency and further cost reductions to become the lean, high performing organisation we need to be. In parallel to that we need to focus on customers and sales performance to be able to return to profitable growth as soon as possible.