Steve Odell: profitability will involve pain.

He believes the Volvo brand is undervalued and needs time to show just what it can do.

Sales guy

‘I am an old fashioned sales guy,’ he said at the Paris Motor Show. ‘All I want is for Volvo to have an unfair share of whatever the market is. My brief is to get Volvo back to sustainable profitability.’

He admits Volvo, which is owned by Ford, is some way short of meeting its previously announced target of volumes in excess of 600,000 cars a year globally. This year, he says, it will probably fall short of 400,000, down from around 440,000 in 2007.

Profitability

Getting back to profitability is inevitably going to involve some pain, he says. The company already announced 2,000 job losses in June and a further 900 three weeks ago. Odell, officially just two days into his new job as Volvo boss, said he will be looking at the cost base over the next month.

‘We will be in a position to make further announcements at the end of October,’ he added

He is not daunted by being the first foreigner in charge of the company.

Odell: started as graduate.

National treasure

He explained: ‘Volvo is a national treasure and the decisions we make have to be good for the company and Sweden. In fact, I have even asked the Swedish government how they feel about a Brit being in charge. If they thought it was a problem then I would have had to have a good, long look at what that meant.’

Where does he see the brand going? Odell said: ‘Volvo cannot abandon safety as a key brand value and the environment is key – that’s not just a marketing term, in Sweden it’s a base assumption.’

Career path

Odell – a Ford Motor Company vice-president – was appointed chief operating officer, Ford of Europe on 1 April this year, moving up from the role of vice president of marketing, sales and service for Ford of Europe, where he had been since1 September 1 2005.

He joined Ford in 1980 as a graduate trainee and worked in several management positions in sales and marketing in Britain and the US, before being appointed V-P marketing and sales for Jaguar North America in 1997.

In January 2000, Odell joined Mazda Motor North America as VP marketing and sales and subsequently became chief operations officer for Mazda North America in October 2000, followed by president of Mazda Europe in January 2002. In May 2003, he was elected senior managing executive officer, marketing, sales and customer services for Mazda Motor Corporation in Japan, where he was also a member of the board.

Born in London in 1955, Odell is married with two children.

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