Page 22: of Marine News Magazine (July 2020)

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COLUMN PROPULSION

Navigating an

Emerging Landscape

By Martin Bjuve, President and CEO, Volvo Penta of the Americas

The past few months have been full of us discover new ways to connect with customers when face- uncertainties and even as we look ahead, to-face may not be an option. These techniques will no we don’t know exactly what the future will doubt remain an ef?cient complement to in-person meet- hold. But we do know that as an industry, ings in the years ahead. we’ll need to prioritize and plan different- ly. Within the Volvo Penta organization, A FOUNDATION FOR GROWTH the team is working hard to understand Our commercial marine business remains resilient and has how to adapt our business as the world demonstrated annual growth consistently in North America. around us continues to adjust to a chang- Last year the increase was attributed to a signi?cant retro?t

Bjuve ing economic and societal landscape.

As I re?ect on what’s transpired since the start of the pandemic, I’m proud of the professionalism and creativity shown by our Volvo Penta team in rising to the challenges.

I’ll give you an example. Technical training is a critical part of our business as we ensure that a high density of skilled tech- nicians stand ready to serve our growing marine commercial customer base. Last year alone, more than 1600 service tech- nicians attended our in-person training sessions in the Ameri- cas. When the coronavirus hit, we had to cancel in-person sessions, but within a few weeks our team launched a new se- ries of online instructor-led classes. We’ll continue to expand these virtual offerings, conducted by our certi?ed trainers, not just in the near-term but into the future as well. The courses will become a regular part of the curriculum, giving dealers a broad range of training options to better suit their needs.

I am also happy to report that the Volvo Group parts re- gional distribution centers, including the one-million sq. foot facility in Byhalia, Miss., remained in full operation. Orders were processed regularly and on-time, ensuring uninterrupted delivery of parts to our power centers, dealers, shipyards and mission critical operators in the ?eld.

We’ve also placed stronger emphasis on leveraging tech- nology to communicate with customers. We’ve been on the forefront of using virtual platforms for internal communica- tion purposes for a long time now but this situation helped

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