Assar Gabrielsson

Early life

Gabrielsson was born on 13 August 1891 in Korsberga, Skaraborg County, Sweden, the son of Gabriel Nathanael Gabrielsson and Anna Helmina Larsson, who married on 14 April 1889. The father was a manager at Korsberga brickworks and later became a leaseholder of Spännefalla farm near the dairy in Tibro, where he started an egg shop. Assar Gabrielsson was the first child of three. He had a brother five years younger, Börje Gabrielsson, who in parallel with Assar was the managing director of Astra for thirty years. He passed studentexamen in 1909 and graduated from Stockholm School of Economics in 1911.

Career

Assar Gabrielsson held a bachelor's degree in economics and worked as a sales manager with bearing manufacturer SKF in Gothenburg in the early 1900s. He was employed in 1916 by Björn Prytz at the sales department and was appointed sales manager for the entire SKF company group on 20 June 1922. He held that position until the new automobile company AB Volvo was founded as a subsidiary company within the SKF company group.

Volvo, the automobile project

In June 1924, when Assar Gabrielsson met his old friend Gustaf Larson in Stockholm, he unveiled his plans to establish the manufacturing of a new Swedish automobile. Gustaf Larson had worked for SKF between 1917 and 1919 but now worked for the company AB Galco in Stockholm. They made an agreement in August 1924 at the Sturehof restaurant in Stockholm, signed in a written contract more than one year later, on 16 December 1925. In this contract Gustav was supposed to carry out the engineering work for a new car as well as an investment plan for a new manufacturing plant, with the stipulation that he would only be rewarded for his work in the event that; the project succeeds, at least 100 cars were produced in this new plant, and that this was to be achieved before 1 January 1928. This famous contract shows that Assar Gabrielsson "owned" the project and that it was a high-risk project without any guarantees. Assar took the economic risks himself and Gustav, in the worst case, would have worked on the project without being rewarded, but would still have his salary from AB Galco in Stockholm. Most of the startup capital Assar intended to use for the project was extra sales commissions that he had saved from his time as managing director for the SKF subsidiary in Paris from 1921 to 1922.

The original idea, presented by Assar to SKF, consisted of a few main points; the central idea was to start an automobile manufacturing business within SKF to gain advantages over competitors when developing new bearings for the automobile industry, which would also lead to increased sales of bearings and in turn lead to positive effects on Swedish industry as a whole. He developed these ideas during the time he worked as managing director for the SKF subsidiary company in Paris 1921-22 when he discovered that competing bearing companies in Europe had started to invest a large amount in automobile companies in order to secure their sales to key customers. However, Gabrielsson failed to convince the board of SKF about his ideas, as SKF's core business model was the manufacturing of bearings with no room for the incorporation of an automobile company. Assar then decided to build a test series of ten vehicles with his own financing to later present the vehicles and an entire investment plan to SKF. The idea to build a pre-series of ten vehicles was most certainly related to the fact that no company would have given them an offer for the components (engines, gearboxes, chassis components etc.) with a lesser quantity, and because Assar was certain that SKF would approve his plans in due time. Engineering, documentation and investment planning was carried out exactly in the same way as if it had been carried out by SKF in order to prepare for the set up of a new automobile company. Assar had the full support from the managing director of SKF, Mr. Björn Prytz, as long as his 'private' project did not interfere with his work as sales manager at SKF.

The last years

Assar Gabrielsson held his position as managing director for AB Volvo until 1956 when he became the chairman of the board (CEO) of the Volvo group, a position he held until his death in 1962.

Chronology

1891 Born 13 August in Korsberga, Skaraborgs län, Sweden. The son of Gabriel Nathanael Gabrielsson and Anna Helmina Larsson.

1911 Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Stockholm School of Economics (HHS).

1912–1916 Employed as stenographer in the Chancellery of the Lower House of the Swedish Parliament.

1916 Marries Anna Theresia Andreasson.

1916–1920 Employed by SKF in Gothenburg in the sales department.

1921–1922 Managing Director of the SKF subsidiary in Paris, France.

1922–1926 Sales Manager for the SKF-company group.

1926–1956 Managing Director at AB Volvo.

1947–1951 President of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

1956–1962 Chairman of the board of AB Volvo.

Personal life

Gabrielsson married on 4 March 1916 to Anna Theresia ("Tessan"), née Andreasson (1889–1964) in Skövde, the daughter of lineman Johan Peter Andreasson (1849–) and his first wife Augusta Mathilda Nyberg (1862–). The Gabrielsson couple lived for many years at Kungsportsavenyen 34 in Gothenburg. and had four children: Lars, Barbro, Jan and Bo.

Gabrielsson is interred at Kvastekulla griftegård in Partille.

Awards and decorations

Swedish

Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Polar Star (6 June 1957)

Commander Second Class of the Order of Vasa

Royal Institute of Technology's Great Prize (1955)

Clarence von Rosen Medal (1942)

Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences de Laval medal (1929)

Foreign

Commander of the Order of the White Rose of Finland

Grand Knight's Cross of the Order of the Falcon (23 July 1936)

Honours

Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences

Member of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg (1956)

Honorary doctorate in economics at Stockholm School of Economics (1959)

Honorary member of the Swedish MTM association (1960)