“The TRATON Modular System is the backbone of efficient operations”
Frida Kjellsdotter heads the Cab & Chassis division as part of the Group Product Planning TRATON GROUP and plays a key role in shaping the future of the transport industry. Her mission is to lead the portfolio of cab & chassis to fit future customer needs.
Frida, before you joined TRATON GROUP Product Management as Head of Cab & Chassis, you were responsible for the project management of product follow-up, ensuring resources were suitably allocated across different projects to increase efficiency and product quality. How does this experience help you in your current role?
My experience at Scania helps me to look even more closely at profitability and to ensure the projects that are crucial for the future success of the TRATON GROUP and its brands are launched and implemented. This includes being clear about what is really important based on data and analysis. This goes along with many discussions with colleagues from the brands’ development teams. These exchanges also involve aligning their input with the TRATON GROUP’s strategy.
At TRATON events like GARR (Group Annual Roadmap Review), Frida Kjellsdotter and her team keep the business updated on how its work supports the TMS.
What has changed for you since you started working for the TRATON GROUP?
My work used to be more straightforward; my team and I had a clearly defined scope of duties. Now, at TRATON, I work at a different level of the organization. Every decision must reflect the TRATON GROUP strategy, values, and ten strategic priorities and take into account the potential impact on each of the brands. This is a complex and important task that my small team and I carry out every day. Our role is to create the right financial conditions so that our colleagues, for example, in research and development, can deliver what we need for the future. We therefore influence how projects are planned and how financing is made possible. Our focus is on promoting and monitoring efficient collaboration between areas such as R&D, procurement, and production. This ensures the financial resources of the TRATON GROUP and its brands are aligned with the needs of our customers.
What role does the TRATON Modular System (TMS) play in this?
TMS is the backbone of efficient and successful operations. All technical challenges are bundled on this platform, and the brands work on common solutions, bringing together the right expertise and creative input from across the wider Group. TMS is to help us solve the same customer needs once, for several brands, raising the efficiency in the organisation. Thus, successfully shaping the transformation towards a CO₂-neutral transport industry.
Which specific talents and skills within your team are particularly important to you – also in terms of overcoming future challenges?
Every day, my team and I receive a variety of input from all corners of the TRATON GROUP. To draw the right conclusions from this, we have to be open to our colleagues and be good and frequent listeners. At the same time, we have to be able to extract what is most important. All of this is done on the basis of the corporate goals of TRATON and the Group’s brands, Scania, MAN, International, and Volkswagen Truck & Bus. With the decisions we make, we are helping to secure the future of the TRATON GROUP. This includes communicating our decisions transparently and openly, ensuring that employees feel heard and understood. On top of that, we keep the commercial perspective of the TRATON GROUP in mind as we go about our work. We are a really well-coordinated team. Since February 2024, within a relatively short timeframe, we have managed to transparently report within the TRATON GROUP on where and how we are deploying our financial resources. In this context, I see us as part of something bigger.
“Our focus is on promoting and monitoring efficient collaboration between areas such as R&D, procurement, and production. This ensures the financial resources of the TRATON GROUP and its brands are aligned with the needs of our customers.”
Frida Kjellsdotter, Head of Cab & Chassis, Group Product Planning TRATON GROUP
What is your management style, and what is your approach to developing technical and creative talent?
I trust my team members 100 percent. This creates an open and safe working environment in which we can talk and discuss almost anything. I encourage my colleagues to contribute their own ideas. This is the only way we can gain the new insights and perspectives we need to successfully work across the different locations of the TRATON brands.
Frida Kjellsdotter as a referent at the TRATON event GARR (Group Annual Roadmap Review)
What helped you to assert yourself in a leadership role in the traditionally male-dominated commercial vehicle industry? And what tips do you have for women working in a similar field who also aspire to a leadership position?
That’s a good question. Somehow, I’ve always wanted to be the best I can be professionally. Great leaders have obviously sensed that – and helped me to find my way at Scania and the TRATON GROUP. These managers have supported me in growing professionally and have stood by me through both my successes and less successful projects. My advice to all women who also aspire to a leadership position is to be self-confident, build up a large support network, and find a manager who can serve as a mentor in crucial moments with advice and help with the first steps. That’s really important. And furthermore, all future managers – whether male or female – should always give their best.
What motivates you personally when you start a new workday? Or to put it another way: what drives you?
That’s a very profound question. Sometimes, it’s something as simple as looking forward to a nice big cup of coffee. But deep in my heart, it’s the search for improvement that motivates me every morning. I’m happy when something improves and works out in a better way than yesterday. That’s a great feeling. And I like it when I can clearly see progress.
