Scania: investing in the right people WO.
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IT'S AN oft-trotted out cliché that nobody makes a bad truck any more.
Given the current spate of new Euro-6 launches, bristling with innovations and the promise of ever-better comfort and performance, you'd be hard-pressed to disagree. But that's not to say all the truck manufacturers are the same and there are no differentiators between the brands. Indeed, it merely means the battleground has moved from products to services and ultimately people.
"Employing the right people is essential to this organisation and the companies we serve," confirms Scania's aftersales director Mark Grant (pictured).
"People pay a premium price for Scania products, [so] we have to ensure those people get that premium re-paid through the life of the product by offering high levels of service during the life of the vehicle.
"You get that by employing people who understand the needs of the customers and our business."
Scania has consistently invested heavily in training and the development of its people. It opened its own training centre in 2000 and now has an intake of 45 to 50 new apprentices each year.
"This truck business is won or lost at the coal face, delivering swift solutions to problems," Grant continues, "and we have traditionally invested in these skills. "However, we are increasingly recognising a requirement to continue the development of those apprentices through to management. In January, we started a new management training course focusing on bringing along the managers of the future within Scania."
The programme was open to everyone in the Scania organisation, explains Grant.
More than 70 people applied, who then had to be whittled down to an initial intake of 15. "We have a lot of dedicated people already in the business, who have no illusions of grandeur or of what life is like in this sector," he explains.
"Our best people are those who have a thorough knowledge of the industry and understand how to extract the commercial value out of the business without compromising the service levels."
The course is run in conjunction with Loughborough University, and students can achieve a certificate of management and then a diploma.
However, Grant says:"Not everyone wants to go to university. We're seeing lots of bright people coming into this organisation for whom vocational training is a great option.
"With the rise in university fees, we're seeing a significant increase in applications — I'd estimate these are up 300% since 2010."
When we caught up with Grant, he'd just returned from a 10-day trip to China as part of a management training course for senior executives, underlining Scania's commitment to developing its people. For somebody who started on the spanners umpteen years ago, that should be encouragement enough for anyone considering a career in this sector.