Volvo's CEO steers the company into the future by innovating.
The Individual Innovator for Western Europe, Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson made headlines last year by announcing that Volvo will soon make only electric cars. That announcement overshadowed other bold ideas that may have even deeper impacts on the world of finance.
For starters, there’s the “car as a service” concept, which Samuelsson predicts will replace the old-school ownership model—and is thus preparing his firm for such a future. Meanwhile, Volvo’s Concierge mobile app lets owners remotely arrange to have their cars refueled or washed, and partnerships with logistics firms are expected to allow parcels to be delivered to trunks. In the long run, cars may be as useful as phones as a vehicle for bundled offerings.
Samuelsson wants to get rid of keys, too. Today we carry around car keys, wallets and smartphones; he says that two of the three must go. “Cities are getting bigger, and it is very difficult to see how that can be combined with private car ownership,” Samuelsson says in a video. “We need innovation for car sharing and to increase the utilization factor of cars.”
