I had the opportunity to work with and arrange a Nordic visit for MunroLive ( I dearly hope you know about this YouTube channel!). What strikes me is how important it is to take care of your heritage and show pride in what company you are working for. There is also so much innovation and learnings from the past decades.
Heritage and history need to be handled with care and love. Learn from the past, then relearn and build the future - innovate with impact! Not everything from the past is ideal and successful, but having knowledge of that will also help you to innovate and learn from past mistakes.
Branding and bringing knowledge about your heritage is not all that easy. Perhaps it has also not been seen as that “important”. Some automotive OEMs have even closed their museums and heritage centers. Is it due to various and frequent ownership changes? Does it matter? What VOLVO are doing in Gothenburg is very exciting - their present museum is giving a fantastic insight to their history, innovations and development. There have been failures, but these are not hidden away. And the next step is already in the planning - the Volvo experience center is in development in central Gothenburg - and even greater immersion into the brand and history. In 1.5 years it will be there and I am already looking forward to it.
Volvo has so many great innovations implemented, and the question is, whether several other could actually have been commercialized too. There are many concept vehicles that are 10 - 25 years old and they would have a market today!
It is remarkable to work with and be around Sandy Munro, not only does he share so much of his unique knowledge, but there are so many various stories that just make you listen.
Sandy is a true hero and deserves even more recognition. He has and is doing so much excellent work. And Sandy loves to talk, so I get to hear a lot about his ambitions.
A conclusion is also that you should love what you do, but it also matters with whom you are doing it with - it’s the people you remember.
/Mika