2024 Visionary Disruptor of the Year
Ola Källenius, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Mercedes-Benz
Being a visionary in the business world means more than just planning based on predicted trends. It means working to define the future. Ola Källenius, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz Group and CEO of Mercedes-Benz, does exactly this.
He leads a team of over 150,000 employees that is dedicated to moving the company that invented the car into a new era of mobility.
"Today's auto industry is all about constantly hitting 'refresh' and getting your products as well as your business future-proofed. Together with the whole Mercedes team, we are 100 percent dedicated to that task. Having invented the car is fantastic. Better still is reinventing the future of mobility. Mercedes-Benz is determined to lead the way in the new automotive world as well," Källenius told Newsweek.
Källenius has found that the best way to succeed is giving employees greater freedom.
"I've been with Mercedes since 1993. During this time, I was privileged to learn a lot from many different colleagues and partners—people with a wide variety of talents and all with the same passion for our cars. I've also experienced leadership in various cultural contexts," he said.
"Over the years, I've developed my very own leadership style, which is based on empowering my direct staff and giving them a lot of freedom to do their jobs. I work this way because I'm convinced that providing greater personal freedom, instead of giving exact instructions, can pave the way for groundbreaking ideas. However, to me greater freedom goes hand-in-hand with greater accountability."
To create next-generation vehicles, with sustainability, emissions, manufacturing, shipping, technology and performance targets in mind, it takes a village. "My approach is to gather as much information as possible along the way before we make a decision at board level. I talk and listen to a lot of people—especially to those with a differing opinion. You can say it's about 'less me, more we,'" Källenius said.
Planning the execution of those groundbreaking ideas takes visionary leadership. To Källenius, the target is obvious. "We have a very clear vision: We will build the world's most desirable cars," he said.
To do that, Mercedes drew a controversial line in the sand. The company is the architect of its "software house." Rather than relying on another company's technology to fit inside its vehicles, it works with specially selected partners and owns the technology ecosystem of its vehicles.
"I am really excited about our proprietary operating system MB.OS. As our new purpose-built chip-to-cloud architecture, it will be central to every future product, delivering exceptional software capabilities and ease of use for our customers," he said.
Part of delivering on that customer experience is giving Mercedes vehicle buyers what they want today and enabling the models that they purchase to be able to stay technologically fresh in the years to come.
"With MB.OS, a Mercedes will actually improve with age ... And even though the goal is to become ever faster in the development of new technologies, we make no compromises when it comes to safety and quality," Källenius said.
He heads the company during a time of great change. Not only are software-defined vehicles coming into focus, but the evolution of powertrains has meant there is a need to build in product development and manufacturing flexibility. Forecasting consumer demand isn't as easy as it used to be, and government regulations are putting pressure on buyer behavior.
Unlike some automakers that have promised to go all-in on battery-electric vehicles, Mercedes will continue to improve powertrains that use a variety of fuels, devoting time and resources to what some brands believe to be outdated mechanics.
But that doesn't mean that Mercedes is not pushing forward on electric vehicles. The company is balancing with one foot in today and another in the future, shown clearly by the wide variety of next-generation G-Class models coming to market soon.
"We have a highly desirable portfolio of battery-electric vehicles and high-tech electrified internal combustion engine models—with more to come. We stay strategically focused and tactically flexible. Mercedes-Benz is taking the necessary steps to go all electric. Customers and market conditions will set the pace of the transformation," Källenius said.
How We Did It
To determine the candidates for this year's World's Greatest Auto Disruptors, Newsweek's Autos team, led by Senior Autos Editor Eileen Falkenberg-Hull, compiled a list considering every major automaker in each of the award categories. Brands, teams and individuals were nominated based on their cumulative merits for the past year, after combing through each candidate's accomplishments in the areas of future product planning, business strategy, technology, marketing, engineering, sustainability, manufacturing and research and development. To be considered, candidates had to be employing executive decision-making, corporate strategy, product development and publicity in a way that is driving fundamental, transformative change in the automotive market, with measurable real-world results—or have clear and demonstrable potential to do so. The Legacy award honors an individual who has achieved these results over decades in the industry. The list of nominees was narrowed by Autos editors, including Jake Lingeman. Winners were chosen after a consensus was reached amongst the Autos team and Newsweek top editors.
