Thread: Why Saab did not survive

Forbes has a couple of interesting articles. Was Saab lacking a real identity? Should they have done things different? Blaming GM for everything is the easy thing to do but perhaps there just wasn't room for a smaller car manufacturer anymore.

What Every Marketer Can Learn From Saab's Crash And Burn - Forbes

Why Saab Had to Die - Forbes

In this article, they link to a 40-page white paper from two business school professors: Matthias Holweg, of Cambridge Judge Business School, and Nick Oliver, of University of Edinburgh Business School.

Saab Automobile AB was declared bankrupt on December 19, 2011. This marked the end of 62 years of car production for the iconic brand, which during its final years was beset with financial problems and changes of ownership. More than 3,700 workers lost their jobs when the Trollhättan factory finally closed its doors after producing a total of 4.5 million Saab vehicles over the years. But what was the root cause for the company’s demise? Was it preventable? And who was to blame?

The failure of Saab was ultimately a market-constrained failure. While Saab enjoyed loyal customers and a history of distinctive and innovative products, its operations were subscale and the segment in which Saab operated gave it insufficient room to grow given the strength of its competitors. With production never exceeding 150,000 units per annum, the niche that Saab occupied was too small to sustain its operations at the prices its products were able to command. In its final years, Saab produced the same volumes as Porsche, yet was competing with Audi who not only had almost ten times Saab’s volumes but also benefited from well-executed platform-sharing and economies of scale within the Volkswagen Group. In simple terms Saab had the worst of both worlds - Porsche volumes with Audi prices. This was not sustainable.

As it is a free download, I am adding it here for archive:

Download: Who killed Saab Automobile? - Downloads - SaabWorld

I am only half way through the white paper which describes what happened in Saab's history. Many of us followed the stories every day but it's great to sit back and read an unbiased report of all things that happened. They must have researched and written this long before the events that happened this week.

I'm a quarter of the way through the white paper, I'm in Crunch Time: The New 9-5. Very insightful so far.

Good analysis. GM deserves the lion share of the blame however new competitors such as infinity and acura moved in took market share in Saab's market segment. Also when the economy goes down hill premium car sales suffer the worse as people shop down market.

That was the best report I have read about Saab in the last 6 years. The more I think about it after reading this, there really wasn't a business future for Saab with such a low volume. Sale to the Chinese would have provided short-term relief but what were they going to do for new product development without platform sharing.

Mr. Muller made a great effort but, as mentioned int he report, perhaps a bit too naive. Koenigsegg must have come to the same conclusion as GM when they were considering to buy Saab.

The comparison to Rover and VW was a nice addition to the situation of Saab.

The demise of Saab was a combination of a lack of synergy between GM and Saab. GM's reluctance to conform to Saab but also Saab's reluctance to become more mainstream was a problem as well. And then there was the economy in the last 4 years and perhaps some bad decisions. And the turbulent last 2 years put in the final nail.

RIP Saab, I will always love the brand, cars and history.