Mercedes-Benz Trucks CEO on the future of sustainable trucks
She has competed for the Swedish rowing team, lived abroad numerous times and climbed the career ladder at Scania. A little over a year ago, Karin Rådström, CEO of Mercedes-Benz Trucks, said farewell to the Swedish truck giant and moved to Stuttgart in Germany to lead Scania’s competitor Mercedes-Benz towards a more sustainable future.
“As the world’s leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles we have the ability to make a positive impact on the climate and we’re determined to be part of the solution,” says Rådström.
An important part of Rådström’s mission is to speed up the change to emission-free transport. The main challenges are the new techniques necessary for the development of battery-electric and fuel-cell-powered vehicles and self-driven vehicles.
“We work with partners to overcome the challenges. Partly to share costs and partly to be able to develop new techniques and commercialise it at a faster pace. We’re going to manufacture fuel cells in a joint venture with Volvo, called Cellcentric. Within the field of autonomous vehicles we’re working with Waymo and Torc,” she says.
Yet Rådström believes that the infrastructure required to charge and fuel vehicles, as well as access to green energy, will prove to be a greater challenge than the development of the vehicles.
“We need more broad-based initiatives from both industry and politics.”
From KTH to top executive
As a young teenager, Rådström moved to Canada with her family. She returned to Sweden in her early twenties and started studying industrial engineering and management at KTH.
“I primarily learnt a lot about problem solving. I also met several of my best friends there. Without their support I wouldn’t have made it to where I am today,” she says.
After graduating, Rådström began her career as a trainee at Scania where she remained for 16 years. Her latest job at Scania was as the sales director, a role she didn’t have any intention of leaving. Until she was contacted by a recruiter, and had to say yes.
“It felt right. And it felt exciting to get overall responsibility and be taken out of my comfort zone by moving to Germany with my family.”
Learnings from competitive sports
Rådström took a few detours during her years at Scania. She worked at the company’s office in Kenya for a year and a half. And during the latter part of the 2000s, she took time off to compete with the Swedish rowing team.
She says the most important lesson she’s learned from competing is that everyone has to be at their best for the team to perform.
“As a manager I focus on creating strong teams by daring to be open and vulnerable with each other. If I succeed with that, the team will be greater than the sum of the individuals.”
She describes herself as fiery and persevering, qualities she’s gained from her years as an athlete.
“But it’s just as much about recovery as it is about performing. The CEO role is associated with high workload and stress. I need to schedule time for rest and fun activities to regain energy,” she says.
Since October last year, Rådström has also been a board member of the American company Ouster, from Silicon Valley. They manufacture lidar sensors that rely on radar to measure distance to an object or surface and are used for example in the development of autonomous vehicles.
“Ouster is growing rapidly and works with the same technique as we do at Mercedes-Benz to enable self-driven trucks. I’m inspired by their short development cycles and innovation ability.”
Nicky Rosenberg