PDF24 test magazine

COVER STORY

The construction industry has been under enormous pressure over the last 24 months with many major construction companies either scaling down or closing. COVID-19 has further lowered confidence in this sector and will negatively impact the whole sector including OEMs’ ability to deliver vehicles. Against this background Scania “It is about TRUE PARTNERSHIP” says SCANIA SA’S MD

Southern Africa welcomed Fabio Souza as its new MD in November 2019. Construction World spoke to him and found a leader whose background is perfectly suited to captain this company through tough COVID-19 times. Perfectly suited background Fabio Souza started his career with Saint-Gobain in Brazil as a product engineer. Nineteen years ago he joined Scania, something he says prepares you for anything. “I had the opportunity to work in three different environments – one region and then two countries.” The region he worked in was Latin America where he was the head of parts pricing. From Brazil he moved to Mexico where he was the service director. This, he says, prepared him for his role in South Africa. In 2006 Mexico was considered one of the worst markets for Scania. The country was competing with American brands and in his seven years there he also had to deal with a swine u outbreak in the country. “It was nothing like COVID-19 though. At the time, we were

only selling buses and this market was devastated. These challenges required us to build a highly resilient organisation. To make matters worse swine u was followed by the Lehman Brothers crash.” As a company, Scania decided to do something different. “We started servicing at customer facilities – something unprecedented, but which worked well,” says Souza.

22

CONSTRUCTION WORLD NOVEMBER 2020