Day 5 - I can't tell if the car knows I'm crazy or if that robot is eyeing me funny...

Business:

WirelessCar:

Well you know the day is going to be interesting when you newly mastered form of transportation is being switched to something else. Today we had to take a ferry, instead of the tram, to cross the river to get to our destination at WirelessCar facility.





WirelessCar is an automotive telematics service provider (TSP), providing manufacturers of cars and commercial vehicles with customized telematics services to end-customers anywhere in the world. Current reference customers are BMW, Volvo Cars, Volvo Trucks and Volvo Construction Equipment. They are owned by the Volvo Group, the world’s second largest heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer, reporting into Volvo IT, leveraging their true global service delivery network and 5000+ strong employees as resource-and knowledge pool. This enables them to have offices and local service delivery capacity in Sweden (HQ), North America, China, and Brazil.  The factors that separate WirelessCar from the competition is their experience, global reach, cross fertilization, innovation, and collaboration with the “Best of the Breed.”

The first thing I thought when I saw the WirelessCar facility building was wow! They had a cool outside building that was abstract and artistic and the inside did not disappoint. They had revolving chairs and a diagram of the facility laid out. I know this is not owned by Wireless Car; however, it illustrates the innovation that is contained in this area of Gotenburg.


After a short period of checking the building out, Martin Lundh brought us up to the WirelessCar office. It was interesting hearing his story about how he became a project manager. He said throughout his career, there was certain aspects about certain industries that he was trying to avoid. He started out saying he wanted to work for a start-up company and would never work for a big company. He then ended up working at ABB Robotics. Then he said he would never work with cars, and now he is working for WirelessCar. It is interesting how life works out, but I am glad he is happy at his current position.

Through his interactive presentation, Martin Lundh described his service portfolio and the planning strategies for WirelessCar and the services provided by WirelessCar. His presentation supplied information about the WirelessCar utility, the Connected Vehicle model, and the prospective services for automobile producers to benefit the end user. By defining the strengths, opportunities, threats, and weaknesses, Martin hit the three main constraints currently in the business: data privacy, off the market solutions, and the entrance of big players. Lastly, he illustrated how his career has led him to WirelessCar and his definition a successful person.

The service provided by Wireless Car is, eventually, to have a connected society between cars, buildings, and people. That means the information coming from building wifi, mobile data, and new car technology would connect the world. If you were getting your oil changed in your car, the car would suggest a local coffee shop to occupy your time if you enjoyed coffee. Then, while you were walking to the coffee shop, you could order the coffee and have it ready by the time you get to the shop. Then your car would notify your phone when the oil change was completed.

That was just one idea, another idea is that if there was an accident, the car could send a single to other cars. This signal would give road conditions and tell cars to avoid this location and supply and alternative route. Or if I woman was pregnant, the seat belt could realize the stress and hormone levels and change all the lights to the hospital green for a quicker Need for Speed experience to get your wifey to the hospital.

The idea of selling this as a service instead of a product is that if you sell it as a service, you can supply it to car manufacturers for a set fee to install the program in the car. Then you can supply the end-user with free service for a few month, then it would cost about $200 a year to continue the WirelessCar service.

This is a great business idea and I am excited to one day possibly live in a connected world. Martin was highly insightful and I am glad we had an opportunity to hear from him  and understand the benefits of being a project manager. Some of those benefits are he gets the chance to constantly work with customers and their needs, learn numerous disciplines, and develop people within the company as well as the product. This opportunity was mentally and intrinsically valuable and this presentation will help me grow as a better businessman. Thank you Martin!

ABB:

Our next stop was ABB Robotics where we were able to talk to Bertil Thorvaldsson. He was a great gentleman and was highly insightful about his role as the Global Product Manager at ABB and his vision for the future of the company. In addition, "Bert" discussed the benefits of his service know as Robot Studio that increased efficiency and consumer satisfaction tremendously.

ABB is the global company in power and automation technologies, with $39 billion in revenue, and present in over 100 countries with over 150,000 employees. They were formed due to a merger in 1988 between the companies BBC and ASEA. Today, you can see ABB products everywhere, such as the fields, crossing the oceans, in power plants, and especially in automotive plants. They have a range of different products and systems like robots, applications, equipment, software, manufacturing cells, and automotive systems. One thing Bert touched on was the benefits of Robot Studio and how the implementation of the software helps make everyone become more efficient at their daily operations.

This also in turn increases the life-cycle productivity for every robot that is sold and being used with
the software, which creates value over time and leads to customer loyalty. Overall, the implementation of this software and ABB robots creates integrated benefits such as better productivity, reduced risk, higher margins, and satisfied customers.

Bert described the importance of a strong business plan to have reoccurring growth coupled with greater productivity. The described the transition for the "Legacy" business model to the "freemium" business model. Currently, he believes ABB needs to get into the "app-store" business model, and that is why he is called the Steve Jobs of ABB Robotics.

Another aspect Bert hit on was the implementation of user stories, which are formed to show what customers are prospectively going to order and how their factory will look first hand. This process is in the developmental stage; however, it was cool to be able to put on the virtual reality glasses.


The virtual reality glasses allow the end-user to step into the prospective manufacturing facility and view the efficiency of their future equipment. This could be a great asset to the sales team allowing an easier display of the product and a more efficient sales meeting. If not, this could be the new revolution in virtual gaming!


It was wonderful listening to  Bertil Thorvaldsson! He truly is the Steve Jobs of ABB Robotics. He was knowledgeable, personable, insightful and a great presenter. I want to thank him especially for the lunch and taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with us. Thank you Bert!

Leisure:

The day ended with a hockey game at the Scandanavium to see the Frolunda Indians. The atmosphere at this hockey was similar to a European soccer game. They even had fireworks inside the building that went off when a goal was scored. Cool!

Our seats were right behind the goal and they were in the perfect location to view the game. In addition, we were given brochures at the beginning of the game that could be folded up to form load noise makers to promote our Frolunda Indians.

It was a great experience and it was hilarious hearing Sam lose her voice screaming so hard! I thought she was going to explode when Connor had predicted the future too! My roommate Connor had said at halftime that the game was going to go into overtime. Sure enough, with less than a minute in the game, Modo scored the equalizer, sending the game into overtime. The game went into a shoot out and Modo won! Doesn't matter, we still had fun. GO HAWKS!

A few differences that I notices about the game of Hockey in Sweden versus the United States is that European Hockey is less violent, larger arena, more puck passing, and less shots. In American Hockey, fights are allowed and we shoot from anywhere and score. It was a low scoring game, but it was interesting seeing the different style of play.

Leisure:

1. JJ has some pretty cool business friends
2. Wireless car and a connected world is an awesome business development
3. I wouldn't mind working in Sweden
4. Bert could be the next Steve Jobs
5. Hockey games are more like soccer games in Sweden

Posted in: ABB,Bertil Thorvaldsson,Frolunda Indians,Martin Lundh,Scandanavium,WirelessCar