EP 8: Jorge Mussi: Navigating Brazil, Sweden, and USA with Toyota and Volvo

What this episode covers

The Auto Ethnographer, John Stech, has a conversation with Jorge Mussi, the General Manager of Aftersales and the Customer Services Division at Toyota do Brasil about his journey from his native Brazil to Sweden and the United States and back to Brazil. He tells his story that begins with Volvo and is currently evolving at Toyota.  Jorge's automotive journey started with Volvo Truck & Bus in the early 1990s. For his love of cars, he moved over to Volvo's passenger car division where he experienced several historical shifts of Brazilian trade policy regarding car imports. He recounts how this impacted the company and how Brazilian and Swedish management styles worked together in these challenging periods. Taking an opportunity to live and work in Sweden at Volvo's headquarters, he relocated to Gothenburg, eventually becoming a Swedish citizen. Jorge discusses how he had to adapt to local culture, even learning proficient Swedish after only four months. He discusses the Swedish decision-making process and how it actually takes place. Jorge returned to Brazil as Volvo Car Brazil's Director of Aftersales and Head of Government Affairs. He realized his advantages in running these operations having learned the inner workings of the headquarters in Sweden. Another opportunity lay around the corner as Jorge joined Volvo Car Americas team in the United States as Director of Aftersales and Customer Services overseeing over 20 markets in Latin America, plus Canada. Here he was faced with the many nuanced differences across Latin American countries. They have one common language (or do they?) but many different cultural attributes. Upon his return to Brazil, Jorge joined Toyota do Brasil during a restructuring and realignment of the company's strategy. However, it was his first time working within a Japanese management philosophy. He discusses how he learned and adapted to this new style of business. https://www.toyota.com.br/ For more information on The Auto Ethnographer please visit the homepage at https://www.auto-ethnographer.com [https://www.auto-ethnographer.com/]