Volvo boss: 'What we need now are solutions'

Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson thought the global financial crisis sparked by the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers was the worst downturn he had ever seen. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit.

"This is probably at an even bigger magnitude," than the Great Recession, he told me.

After nearly a month of zero vehicle production in Europe, Samuelsson has had enough. "This cannot continue," he said. That is why he has spearheaded the restart of Volvo's vehicle assembly plants in Sweden and Belgium.

He said that his focus now is to use his decades of leadership experience in the industry to find a way to "balance all the interests."

That means safeguarding the livelihoods of Volvo's workers, suppliers and dealers by getting the automaker back to work whilealso protecting the health and safety of everyone directly or indirectly linked to the company.

What Samuelsson doesn't have time for is a lack of action.

"I don’t need an explanation on why we should slow down even more or shut down. What we need now are solutions. And if a solution doesn’t work then we need to change things quickly."

This pragmatic, determined approach is how he plans to lead Volvo through the crisis.