Sunday Night Snippets
February 28, 2010 in News
There are a few important developments that I need to cover here….
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Saab have recently brought home what could be the last of the operations outside of Trollhattan, when several marketing, admin and PR people moved from their Pixbo facility at Mölnlycke, near Gothenburg.
Around 100 employees had their last day at Pixbo last Friday.
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Saab have recently received a grant to promote entrepreneurial thinking and projects amongst employees.
A translation from TTELA:
How do you create a spirit of entrepreneurship and at the same time an effective organization?
Saab Automobile, The City of Trollhättan, Lear Corporation and ANA Trolhättan (the local Saab dealer in Trollhättan) seek answers to this question in a competence development project (called Entré), which on February 25 received 17 million kronor in EU aid and will reach 4,000 employees.
With Saab having cut the moorings from GM, business development and innovation is a foundation need in order to survive. There has been talks of a special Saab spirit that has been reinforced in the very shaky journey the company has made over the past year – a crisis of consciousness that can embed a new creativity and ingenuity.
A project aimed at getting the very creative process of undertaking the project entrance as just been granted 17 million through the Swedish ESF Council with funding from the European Social Fund. With the three companies involved and Trollhättan city’s own resources there is a total project budget of 31 million kronor – Saab accounts for the lion’s share and is also the workplace where the project will have the greatest impact.
The project is to enhance entrepreneurship among all employees within an organization – or intrapreneurship, which it is usually called when we talk bout entrepreneurial thinking and innovation within an existing company.
- The project includes for example training in models and structures on how to harness ideas and thinking on these issues, “says Kari Jansson, Saab’s training manager.
Among other things, the project includes an entrepreneurial school and provide leadership training in entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it will have an exchange with an entrepreneurial university in LIUC Castellanza outside of Milan in Italy.
The project, which will be able to touch many departments at Saab, is also addressing Enterprise Lean, a model that works more efficiently in order to remove non value adding processes and process steps.
The project leader Anders Isaksson, from the Saab competence management department, talks about the project as part of the wider work to turn Saab into a dynamic, entrepreneurial company, after a more passive culture as part of the GM organization.
- This may be a small part, but an important tool towards that goal.
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And finally, a quick from the BBC.
This one goes out to all the naysayers who reckon you can’t be profitable being small.
Jaguar Land Rover turned in a profit of £55m in the last three months of 2009 after a loss of £60m in the previous quarter.
The company’s owner, India’s Tata Motors, said the bounce back was thanks to stronger market conditions.
It added that its range of new models had helped its performance.
Of course, they will need to be more profitable than that to develop new models, as will Saab, but it’s an encouraging message nonetheless.
Thanks to Dave for the link.
