Andersson, Boo

He grew up in the south of Sweden, joined the ranks of the Swedish armed forces at the age of 19. He is a graduate of the Military Academy of Sweden and a senior management program at Harvard University , and also holds a bachelor 's degree in business administration from the University of Stockholm . In the armed forces of Sweden, he reached the rank of major .

He began his career in the automotive industry in 1987 , after becoming GM 's manager for interaction with Saab Automobile AB . In 1990 he was appointed vice president of SAAB Procurement.

In 1993, he was transferred back to GM as an executive director for the purchase of electrical engineering, and in 1994 he headed the purchase of chemical materials. After several years of leadership positions in 1997, he was appointed Vice President for Procurement at GM Europe. In 1999, he returned to North America, where he headed the international purchasing group GM. From April 2007 to June 2009 , GM Group Vice President , Global Procurement Policy and Supplier Network Development.

In June 2009, he left General Motors and became Oleg Deripaska 's automotive adviser, also leading the board of directors of the GAZ Group ^[1] .

On August 7, 2009 he was appointed President of the GAZ Group ^[2] . In this position, he had to combine the development of the company's strategy with the management of current operations. Before him was tasked to ensure the optimal ratio of product quality and costs of all levels.

Under his leadership, GAZ Group has updated the model range in accordance with modern market requirements, began implementing joint projects with leading international automakers and strengthened its leadership in the market of light commercial vehicles. In 2012, GAZ Group received a net profit of 8.8 billion rubles under IFRS ^[3] , which is 3.5% higher than the 2011 figure.

Since November 5, 2013, the Board of Directors of AvtoVAZ OJSC has approved Andersson as president ^[4] . He took office on January 13, 2014 ^[5] . Since that time, Bo Andersson became chairman of AvtoVAZ.

Bo Andersson announced his departure from AvtoVAZ on February 17, 2016. He worked in AvtoVAZ until April 3, 2016, being engaged in the transfer of affairs to the new management. After leaving AvtoVAZ, Andersson became the head of Bo Group Enterprises ^{[6] [7]} and began lecturing on purchasing MBA courses at Linkoping University ^[8] .

From July 2017, he became director of Yazaki in Europe and Africa, and on March 3, 2018 in North and Central America.

• Received the award "Top-5 cars" in the category "autoperson of the year" for achievements in the automotive industry in 2015 ^[9]
• Nominated for the title of "Professional of the Year 2015" by the newspaper Vedomosti ^[10] .
• He received the prize of the 13th International Russian Automobile Forum "The best entry to the market in 2009". The forum was established by the Adam Smith Institute ^[11] .
• He was recognized as the "Best Executive of 2010" in the Russian automotive industry at the International Automotive Forum of Adam Smith ^[12] .
• In 2011, he was recognized as the best head of the automotive industry in Europe in the category “Emerging markets” at the annual Eurostars Awards competition, which is held by Automotive News Europe for the most successful leaders of the European automotive industry.
• From September 14, 2012 to 2016, he was Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Sweden in Nizhny Novgorod ^[13] .
• He received the award of Automotive Supply Chain Magazine "For Outstanding Achievements 2012" "... for restoring the financial position of the GAZ Group" ^[14] .
• Received an award from the 2013 International Russian Automobile Forum “For the Contribution to the Integration of the Russian Automotive Industry into the Global Automotive Industry” ^[15] .

During the leadership of Bo Andersson, AvtoVAZ underwent significant changes, while the top manager himself introduced a new management style and culture to the plant. On the very first working day, Bo Andersson ordered to clean up all the premises of the plant ^[16] . He himself could pick up the garbage and in the presence of the production directors take it to the urn . He visited dealers in person and dined in the factory canteen ^[17] . One of the first instructions of Bo Andersson as president of the company was to sell the fleet of 18 expensive foreign cars, which AvtoVAZ top managers moved on. Bo Andersson himself was transferred to VIP equipment, which has been produced in Togliatti since 2011. After starting production in 2016, Bo Andersson began to move to Lada Vesta . ^[18] . The proceeds from the sale of these cars (about 20 million rubles) were spent on the repair of showers, changing rooms and toilets ^[19] . In addition, Andersson immediately banned the New Year corporate parties at the expense of the company and ordered to remove indoor flowers from office space ^[19] . He also eliminated the scientific and technical library of the enterprise (about 600 thousand volumes), and part of the book fund was transferred to the Togliatti engineering college ^[19] .

One of the key problems of AvtoVAZ, indicated by Bo Anderson at the beginning of his assumption of office, was the company's image. Bo Anderson launched the process of changing the corporate style of the company, including the renewal of the logo , the corporate identification of dealers, the intensification of promotional activities and so on ^[20] .

The new model LADA Vesta received the maximum rating in the crash test Autoreview (4 stars ARCAP ) ^{[21] [22]} . Thus, Lada Vesta was one of the safest cars on the Russian market. In January 2016, LADA Vesta entered the top ten best-selling cars on the Russian market only two months after the start of sales ^[23] .

Under Andersson, the enterprise did not become profitable - by the end of 2015, AvtoVAZ suffered a loss of 73 billion rubles ^[19] . At the same time, a large part of the loss (42 billion rubles) was accounted for by accounting write-offs that occurred due to a drastic decrease in the market volume ^[24] . Also, critics blamed Bo Andersson's firm policy of complying with suppliers' quality standards, with the result that the Swedish top manager got involved in the conflict. Some suppliers have deliberately delayed delivery, which has repeatedly led to a halt in the conveyor. Bo Andersson accepted this challenge and terminated contracts with those who were unable to deliver their products on time and at a lower price. Among such suppliers were OJSC United Automotive Technologies and Avtovaz-Aggregate. "Avtovaz-unit" because of the termination of the contract with the automaker became bankrupt ^{[25] [26]} .

In 2018, a documentary was released on Swedish television, where Bo Andersson spoke about his impressions about his experience in Russia in general and Togliatti in particular ^[27] .

Achievements

• Exclusion of intermediaries between the component manufacturer and the plant ^[28] ;
• The release of six new models (Vesta, Xray, Largus Cross, Kalina Cross, Niva Urban 4x4, Granta Liftback) ^[28] , as well as 8 cars of the Renault-Nissan alliance;
• Improving product quality ^[28] ;
• Creating a customer satisfaction center ^[29] ;
• Creation of “Lada Academy” for dealers ^[29] ;
• Increase productivity. In 2014, it doubled compared with 2013, and in 2015 it increased by about 11% ^[29] ;
• Repair of common areas ^[30] ;
• Top management moved to Lada cars ^[30] .

Top manager has made significant operational changes in the company ^{[31] [32]} :

• introduced the Renault-Nissan Alliance quality standards and improved product quality;
• reduced the number of management levels from nine to five;
• increased the standardization of workplaces at the plant in order to increase efficiency;
• reduced the number of employees of the enterprise by 37% (from 77 thousand people to 44.4 thousand people), including a reduction in the number of office employees by 44% (from 16 thousand people to 8.9 thousand people) and workers by 35% (from 54.1 thousand people to 35.4 thousand people);
• reduced the number of subsidiaries.

Criticism

In August 2015, due to breach of obligations on deliveries, AvtoVAZ terminated the contract with AvtoVAZagregat OJSC , orders for products were redistributed between TPV Rus (a Slovenian company, with production in Tolyatti ^[33] .) And Lada Plast ”, Which was one of the reasons for the cessation of production and supply of the factories of the group of companies and the recognition of its bankruptcy, which led to social tension in the city, with workers overlapping the M-5 highway ^{[34] [35]} .

In 2016, the subsidiary VAZ Technological Equipment Manufacturing VAZ LLC, Volzhsky Mechanical Plant LLC (VMZ LLC) and the Pilot Industrial Production Plant of VAZ VAZ ^{[36] [37] were} liquidated. Liquidation was associated with the reconstruction of the production of tooling and molds at AvtoVAZ, the production director was former director of OOO VMZ, Andrei Yezelev. In 2014, the loss of OOO VMZ was 6.8 billion rubles in revenue of 1.9 billion rubles ^[38] . In 2019, Nikolai Ostudin, chairman of the AVTOVAZ PROO LLC, who is also the representative of the United Russia party and the general director of AVTOVAZ PROO LLC, called Boo Anderson guilty of the liquidation of the VAZ production and pilot production in the interests of Renault ^{[39] [40]} . Specific arguments and facts were not given.

Dismissal

There are several versions of the reasons for dismissal:

• The invitation to this position was intentional and planned temporary. Shareholders decided to use a third party for the long-planned staff cuts, and with their resignation to defuse the impending social discontent in Togliatti ^[29] .
• Reduction of a large number of people ^[28] .
• Refusal from Russian suppliers in favor of foreign ^{[29] [28]}
• Financial performance of the company ^{[29] [28]}

• Deripaska entrusted GAZ to a foreigner
• Biography of Bo Anderson
• Andersson appointed president of AvtoVAZ for three years
• "AvtoVAZ" said Boo
• One day in the life of the President: Bo Andersson, AvtoVAZ