Let's all cut to the chase:
Let's all cut to the chase: Saab will always represent and stand for the best qualities in any industry, especially the automobile industry: Deep and tireless concern for the lives and safety (the absolute first principle), well-being and enjoyment of its customers. This key yet under-appreciated point is abundantly evidenced in Saab's brilliant safety/handling innovations and pioneering leadership in safety cage design, crumple zones, ergonomic instrumentation design--which maximizes road attention via minimizing distraction/over-looking for controls; reverse-opening hood to minimize collision intrusion into the passenger compartment, key placed between the seats to protect your right knee in a collision, front-wheel drive, disc brakes, egg-shaped total body design—mirroring nature's incredibly strong/resilient design principles; heated seats--reflecting the vital understanding that a cold driver is a more contracted/less flexible and responsive one, innovations in quality engineering... the list goes on and on and on... What amazing and unique DNA for a car company, yet no surprise considering Saab's direct aircraft design roots... Just because Saab was never a huge monetary success takes nothing away from its brilliant and vital contributions to fundamental automotive safety, which ought to ALWAYS be Job 1 for EVERY automobile company. The resultant driving experience was a delightful synergy of rock-solid road handling and feedback from car to driver, confidence, ergonomic ease, great driver visibility, and myriad other tangible and intangible qualities which result in pride in ownership, deep customer appreciation and brand loyalty, and simple happiness at feeling cared for by the combined intelligent and heartfelt efforts of a group of people turning out a great product which got you from point A to B in safety, comfort and quirky style.
Judging Saab by mere monetary success also COMPLETELY misses the point. Saab was like a future-leaning R&D skunkworks, pioneering so many crucial and delightful innovations which proved foundational to automotive engineering and design. It's a known fact that many R&D departments in organizations "lose money," yet are so often the seeds for breakthrough success when viewed/valued for their contributions to the WHOLE company and/or greater industry. Additionally, many organizations would kill for the BRAND LOYALTY that the original Saab, prior to GM's involvement, and subsequent dilution/destruction of the brand and finally the company itself. As a footnote, what a tragic joke of a company GM is---how can anybody take a company seriously that accepts billions in taxpayer bailout money due to its utter incompetence---totally boring/low value product line, antiquated management/leadership practices, arrogance, poor quality, etc., etc. To be clear, this is NOT an attack on GM's vast and well-meaning workforce. As quality authority Dr. W. Edwards Deming has shown, 95% or more of the problems in any company are the fault of the system the people work within, which can only be improved with the support of the organization's top leadership/management.
If all of the above sounds like something of a love letter to a car and the company that produced it, so be it. I view it more as a tribute to the highest ideals any company (especially an automotive company) and the people who are that company ought to aspire to: to care deeply about the safety FIRST of its customers and thus make a car that's safer, easier, more fun, more durable, more interesting---even different, if that's where it leads you---than all the other status quo cars on the road. Saab will always be great for putting safety first, allowing this principle to drive the design, form and function of the car. They truly epitomized "Thinking Different." My hope is that the spirit if not the company of Saab will one day be resurrected in new form, as reflected in the beautiful PhoeniX concept car from recent Saab designer Jason Castriota, who's vision and ethic embodied the true heart and soul of what made Saab timelessly great.
Bravo and thank you Keith for your thoughtful original article which inspired this rather long yet heart-feft missive.
Note: Author Matthew Cross is president of Leadership Alliance, a global strategic alignment and training organization and author/co-author of five books (see HoshinMedia.com and LeadershipAlliance.com). He drove his first Saab in 1983 and proudly owns three 1990's Saabs today.