Husqvarna, a $300 million division of Electrolux, competes in the national market of outdoor power equipment, a market spread over many key players and multiple product lines. The challenge was to develop a decisive edge in being the best; taking hold of market leadership; and building an enterprise to last, at several times its current size, in the near term.
Husqvarna, required extraordinary marketing, sales, product, and supply chain leadership, in order to bring together very disparate, often divided, corporate silos, far removed in both geography and philosophy.
VSA collaborated with other management consultancies to form an alliance that generated a sales “war room”; the skillful use of the CEO to launch a bold customer initiative, “total source;” a financing innovation for a nationwide network of customers; and the emergence of the President as a national leader.
By aligning supplies, sales, and production teams, and demanding their urgent leadership, VSA enabled Husqvarna to post a 400% increase in profitability in the first full year together, and compounded that with 68% additional increase in profit in the second full year.
Alongside that, Husqvarna generated and used new approaches in marketing, sales, financing, products, and supply chains.
Husvarna then emerged as a multi-billion dollar spin-off of Electrolux corporation capitalized at $3.4 billion, which is now listed on the Swedish stock exchange.