Production
Saab History On Saab Automobile’s Future Possibilities
January 15th, 2009, 5:54am by Ryan - 1 Comments
I have been reading the news lately, all of it relating to Saab, and I must say with a new buyer in the realm, and a chance to separate from General Motors, the news actually seems more positive than last year, with this fresh start to 2009.
There is a lot going on right now, combined with the fact that many Saab Automobile executives just finally returned from their long (relative to the U.S.) holidays, which is probably why they have probably been super quiet, but I suspect that we’ll be hearing from them soon enough as February & March come around when they need to submit a strong sustainable plan to General Motors.
What I see that will happen is a gradual succession/de-integration process from General Motors over time. The areas that should not be affected immediately, would include service at the dealership level, parts availability at the dealership and 3rd party vendor level. The areas that should be affected are production (moving 9-5 and 9-3 convertible back) engineering, design, marketing, management (eliminating any GM management from having any decision making abilities at all) and other critical areas moving back to Sweden and out from General Motor’s hands. While operations and the headquarters will regain the talent throughout the departments in house, I do have some questions about what will happen at all of the other international locations such as the importer locations. For instance, will there be a new office for Saab Automobile AB here in the United States (ie. Saab Automobile North America), once GM premium brands have no more Saab responsibiliy? Where would that be located? Who would run and manage it, obviously not anyone from GM. Where would the marketing team come from? Who would be hired? Shouldn’t it be located back in New England, so why not Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s former air base now business park (Born from Jets)? Remember if Saab Automobile AB really needs autonomy, they also need to realize that they will need to ensure that this autonomy takes place globally in an efficently scaled way so that all Saab Automobile AB satellite office’s (global importers) so everyone’s on the same page, at all times. Byproducts of this plan should include dealerships that are more in the loop, at all times, and thus customers as well!
If Saab Automobile AB’s President, Jan-Ã…ke Jonsson believes that separting from General Motors is best, I am trusting his insight here and believe this can happen, so I am eagerly excited as to what this will mean once a good plan is put together and submitted.
There are a lot of possibilities here, and I am hopeful that the results yield some unprecidented changes from disconnecting from General Motors to reconnecting with the way they do best, as an autonomous unit with the freedoms to do what is needed in the global environment today.
Categories: 2000-2009
1 Comments
[...] There’s also the possibility that Saab will be shed from GM’s collection of divisions and left to fend for itself with Swedish management (a retro-orgasmic outcome for Saab enthusiasts) bankrolled by the Swedish government. In this scenario, Saab would flee one bailout for the embrace of another. [...]
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