Transition has been afoot in the Volvo Penta C-suite since Ron Huibers announced his retirement at the 2019 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, capping a 26-year run with the company. For seven of those years, he served as president of Volvo Penta of the Americas.

His successor, Martin Bjuve, served until December 2021. Tony Kelleher succeeded him as acting president of Volvo Penta of the Americas.

Earlier this year, in April, the company tapped Fredrik Högberg to be president of Volvo Penta North America. Högberg comes to the marine propulsion and technology company after nearly 28 years at Volvo Group, where he held titles including project manager for Volvo Trucks, president of Volvo Group Truck Operations China, and multiple senior vice president roles in group truck sales, retail development and digital services and solutions.

Högberg stepped into his new role in May and has been traveling the world, meeting with Volvo Penta operations members, OEMs, dealers and customers. He has also immersed himself in using the products and technologies the company is best known for, including its IPS drives, marine diesel engines and generators, gasoline inboards and sterndrives.

Soundings Trade Only spoke with Högberg in late September to discuss supply-chain headwinds, the conflict in Ukraine, electrification and hybridization, assisted docking, work culture, service technician training and more.

You officially started your role as president of Volvo Penta North America on May 15 after coming in from Volvo Group — how are things in your new role compared to trucks and heavy equipment?

Obviously, there are plenty of new things to learn. This
industry is different, but it’s still within the same
company. So far, [I’ve been] recognizing a lot of patterns and seeing a lot of similar things.

What is your boating background?

We had a summer house growing up where we had a small row boat, and it had a six-horsepower engine on it. So, [I did] a lot of fishing as a kid on that boat. I always enjoyed the boat, but I also grew up in an area where there were not a lot of boats.

You started at Volvo Group in 1994. What milestones have been important to your development?

I wouldn’t say milestones per se. I think it’s working within an organization, making it a living, learning organization. Adapting to things, so to say, to the environment we’re in. I think that has been a key all along throughout my career within Volvo because so many things change. Some things you can control, some things you can’t control. I try to dig deep into the organization with the focus on customers and what we call customer success, then customer satisfaction. We need to build the team every day. So, learning the organization with a huge focus on the customers has been the key.

And when we talk about customers, you must cater to the customer needs differently and make sure you meet them where they need to be met, and not where you think they’re going. It’s kind of a little bit of both. I think that has been the key — this is what we call a resilient organization, making sure we can cope with changes while being agile and innovative.

Volvo Penta has introduced some products that were real eye-openers when they came out. The latest seems to be assisted docking; can you give us an update on your partnership with Garmin?

If we start with the [Garmin] partnership, we believe that is a key for success, because you can only be an expert in doing so many things. With assisted docking, I’ve seen that builders are preparing it and integrating it in newly developed boats. There is an interest for sure. We also have a retrofit program available now, but we need to be very cautious when we implement it, making sure it’s going into the right vessel. It makes boating easier. I’ve tried it myself, and not being a boater, even I can do things with a boat that I didn’t believe I could do.

Two big growth areas in the industry right now are electrification and hybridization. What do you see as good use-cases for electrification and how is Volvo Penta positioning itself with these technologies?

Yeah, it’s a big question, right? What I’m seeing from my perspective is being part of the Volvo Group is huge here, because we don’t bet on one area, and there’s no silver bullet. If we look at it, different segments, different usage of boats, then we respond quicker or slower, depending on what technology. So, if you think about renewable fuels, hybrids, full electric … we’re looking at all these technologies. We already have investors in operations that are hybrid, in very demanding applications such as crew transfer vessels. I think we have close to 5,000 hours invested in that development. We are learning a lot because we have systems on a lot of pilot boats. We think that’s the right way to go before we fully industrialize. With electrification, I can see smaller lakes, certain segments could go fully electric faster, but it also must come with the infrastructure [for charging].

The pilot boat hybridization use-case seems to be one that’s been resilient, not just among Volvo Penta, but also for other manufacturers and builders.

Yeah, absolutely. We tested [the systems] in different environments, so we learn from a commercial perspective. We also have an advantage at Volvo Penta because we’re using the systems all the way from heavy ­commercial use to leisure boating. That way we can learn from two angles at the same time.

There’s been a rapid acceptance of generator-free boats with lithium-ion banks and high-output alternators. Does Volvo Penta see this as a headwind for its generator segment?

I can’t answer that right now because we don’t know. But what I can answer about Volvo Penta, and again being part of the Volvo Group, is looking at sustainability topics, that it’s super important for us. I think you can expect us to be part of anything that happens in the industry one way or another. We don’t see this as a threat per se. I think it’s an opportunity for the industry to really take a step forward if we talk about cleaner energy to protect the ocean.

Last year, Volvo Penta received a certification from the Great Place to Work Institute. How does Volvo Penta think about work culture and diversity?

I should say first, it’s definitely a people-centric environment. We firmly believe that people are the ones who create value for the customers at the end of the day. We work a lot on well-being, with safety and well-being being our top priorities. It’s non-negotiable and the core of the foundation.

Then, if we really think about care and trust in an organization, you must care for the people, which is inheriting the culture and then trusting the people closest to the customers and where it happens to make decisions. We give everybody the opportunity to grow. I think that is really, really important in the Volvo Penta and Volvo Group culture that we actually let our people do what they’re good at. They’re so committed and passionate to customer success, customer satisfaction and really driving [the business]. We let them do their jobs because they know [what they’re doing]. It’s also about development of your people when we have all these new technologies coming. We have [to invest in] them and provide them the time to make sure that they have all the tools they need.

You mentioned diversity. We always try to mirror the community, but then we have pretty high standards when it comes to diversity and inclusion. That’s because we’re not all the same, and if you come into the company and try to mold them the same, we’ve got to be inclusive. And I think there’s a lot of things there that are inherent in the Volvo Penta culture that we live and breathe 24/7 … and it’s really evident.

What supply-chain issues are you facing and how are you dealing with them? Are things better compared to when you started?

We have taken the stance to do our best to protect our customers by over-investing in capacity, for lack of a better word. We carry much more capacity than we normally would in these times to get the output that we need.

I think that is the big investment we have done, and obviously working close with our partners, and our suppliers as well, making sure that happens. And one day, I can say it looks better, then we get a phone call and there’s a shutdown in a facility somewhere with Covid. With semiconductors, we have seen that easing up a little bit, and with other things it’s a little bit hit-or-miss. I would say the general trend is moving toward the better, but then again, if we talk an hour from now, I could get the phone call about something that’s happened somewhere. So that is the key. We’re rushing freight, we’re flying more things in and expediting everything we can.

I think it’s also about responsible purchasing, making sure we’re not hoarding and trying to get everything, because everybody’s suffering right now. So, we are trying to find solutions because there is no manual that has a script for dealing with supply-chain prices in connection with Covid.

Is Volvo Penta facing headwinds because of the war in Ukraine or the sanctions against Russia?

Not that I’m aware of, from a supply-chain perspective. Obviously, it has implication on transportation routes overall, but everybody’s suffering from that. The energy crisis and the prices of energy in Europe are what’s happening, but that is not unique for the broader group. That goes for anybody.

What is Volvo Penta doing about staffing issues, especially service technicians?

We are taking steps to get people interested overall. Not too many people sit in school and say, “I want to be technician,” whether that be automotive or marine. So, we’re involving ourselves in a lot of different schools to try to educate people, going to colleges and [job] fairs, and trying to educate them about why this is a good profession. To help, we donate a lot of equipment like engines, equipment, tooling, you name it. Having said that, I think we can do even more as an industry, such as trade schools and being more active as an industry. When it comes to our service providers and dealers that we work with, who maintain and repair our products, we have fourfold the number of people that go through training [than we used to].

It sounds like the culture at Volvo Penta is very customer-focused.

Yeah, extremely. I would say that is such an evident core for everybody at Volvo Penta that the customer comes first. Even in our board rooms it’s customer first all the time.

Volvo Penta has done well bringing innovative products to market. What’s on the horizon?

We have talked a lot about technology here, like drivelines and things like that, but also, it’s kind of the unprecedented boating experience we’re working with. Then we come into services, digitalization, making sure we can modularize and allowing the customer to enjoy the boating experience. There is more to come around that one. Exactly when, we will see, but you will be there when we announce it.

Is Volvo Penta planning products and services around the Internet of Things?

It already exists, but then it depends on what you do with it as well. Everything is connected today, or we can connect most things, but it’s also how you utilize that connectivity.

What else should Soundings Trade Only readers know?

It’s just a fantastic industry to be in that is super fun. We can still learn from the greater Volvo Group, because [that represents] 95,000 employees present in every country in the world, essentially. It’s good to stay within the family. You can see certain patterns where we can borrow things and really utilize the strength of the larger company.

This article was originally published in the November 2022 issue.