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Saab's incoming president of North America business said the company's new focus on the U.S. defense and civil security market will consolidate Saab's U.S. presence, strengthen its image in the United States while hopefully also increasing partnerships with U.S. companies.
The Swedish company also is aiming to strengthen its image in the United States as a defense and security company, said Dan-Ake Enstedt."A very important part is to have one face and one brand or name, because a problem is today that people hear about Saab, they think we are a car company," even though Saab sold its auto division to General Motors years ago, said Dan-Ake Enstedt.
Enstedt currently heads the company's defense and security segment but will move to the new role of president of North American business Jan. 1. Last month, Saab announced the restructuring of its top management organization, changing the roles of three vice presidents, including Enstedt: Lena Olving will be the new chief operating officer, Jonas Hjelm already has transitioned to the role of chief marketing officer and Enstedt becomes president, North America.
The company also is reorganizing its three segments containing 15 business units into five business areas: aeronautics, support and services, security and defense, electronic defense systems and dynamics.
"We had this strategy work during spring and summer, and one issue that we looked at [was that] 20 years back, 80 or 90 percent of our turnover was in Sweden," Enstedt said. "But today we are close to 80 percent outside Sweden."
Strong areas for the company outside its home country are South Africa and Australia, each of which has a larger Saab presence than does the United States. Saab's U.S. operations include 250 employees and account for about $300 million in revenue, Enstedt said, roughly a tenth of its total sales.
"It's not good enough. We really need to increase that, a lot." he said.
Saab sees the U.S. market opening up to European companies as DoD looks to lower the costs of its acquisitions, Enstedt said.
Saab will focus on three areas in growing its U.S. business: selling more products, increasing the number of partnerships with U.S. companies, and making acquisitions in areas it sees as key, including training and simulation, civil security, sensors, electronic warfare and UAVs.
The actual structure of the U.S. business will take shape early next year, he said, and Saab will have a Washington headquarters for its U.S. operations.
"We would like to increase our sales of product and systems. We are a small company; we are only 14,000 people, but we have really good products and systems," he said. "But this is not enough, I think. We need to work harder with acquisitions" to increase Saab's U.S. footprint.
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