Luca de Meo, Chairman of SEAT, believes that innovation means doing surprisingly useful things for people and fundamentally changing how organizations operate. He sees opportunities for SEAT in connecting cars to users, dealers and infrastructure through mobility services. De Meo also stresses the importance of private sector investment in innovation to drive competitiveness and exports. He aims to expand SEAT's model range and capitalize on its Barcelona base through a new innovation lab focused on smart mobility solutions.

1. INTERVIEW WITH LUCA DE MEO, CHAIRMAN OF SEAT
BY ANTONIO DÁVILA
PERSONAL
insight
39ISSUE 32 FIRST QUARTER 2017https://dx.doi.org/10.15581/002.ENT-3444
Photos by JORDI ESTRUCH
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abrand,
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uniqueness.”
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2. 40 FIRST QUARTER 2017 ISSUE 32
With 25 years’ experience in the automotive
industry, Luca de Meo comes to SEAT ready to
write a new chapter in the company’s history.
De Meo began his career with Renault in
1992 before moving to Toyota in 1997 where he
was responsible for the Lexus brand. In 2002,
he went to Fiat and helped turn the company
around with the launch of the award-winning
Cinquecento and the resurrection of the Abarth
brand. It was for his work there that he was
named Chief Marketing Officer of the Year by
Booz & Company in 2008.
In 2009 he joined Volkswagen as Chief
Marketing Officer. “For me, an Italian, without
speaking the language, it was like landing on
the moon,” he once told Car magazine. He
went on to become the Vice President of Audi,
before taking the helm at SEAT (part of the
Volkswagen group) in 2015.
Also in 2015, he received the honorary title
of Commander of the Order of Merit of the
Italian Republic (Commendatore al Merito della
Repubblica Italiana). He continues to have close
ties with Bocconi University in his native Milan,
where he studied Business Administration and
was the first student in Italy to write a thesis on
business ethics.
IntheDriver’sSeat
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41ISSUE 32 FIRST QUARTER 2017
INTERVIEW WITH LUCA DE MEO
ThinkingBiggerThanCars
M
any large, incumbent firms got to
where they are today through con-
sistent, excellent execution. While
being able to execute a business idea
better than the competition will always be impor-
tant, it is not enough on its own to stay ahead, espe-
cially given the exponentially faster rate at which
technological advances are occurring. Increasingly,
what counts is a company’s ability to innovate – to
detect what’s on the horizon and to seize emerging
opportunities before others do. “Fortune favors the
first to see change,” notes IESE Professor Antonio
Dávila.
Nowhere is this truer than in the automotive
industry. Car manufacturers know their future sur-
vival is not just about finding more efficient ways to
produce high-performance vehicles, because their
competition is no longer just other car manufac-
turers. Rather, it’s startups like Tesla and tech
giants like Google and Apple that are entering the
same space and threatening to shake up the entire
industry with their game-changing innovations.
Traditional car manufacturers realize they need to
get tech right if they wish to stay on the road.
For this reason, the Spanish car maker SEAT,
part of the Volkswagen group since 1986, has joined
forces with IESE Business School to create the
SEAT Chair of Innovation, held by Tony Dávila.
This new Chair has been established “with a clear
international outlook” and to “conduct applied
research” into business model innovation. As
SEAT Chairman Luca de Meo explained at the of-
ficial launch of the Chair at IESE in January 2017,
“Teaming up with IESE can help us be more open
and future-oriented. We need the vision of scholars
who are not limited by day-to-day demands or busi-
ness imperatives. We need people who see things
differently, from another perspective, with fresh
ideas. And with IESE, its professors and students, I
am convinced we have the best possible partner.”
De Meo brings his own fresh ideas to SEAT,
coming with a wealth of experience gained from
Renault, Toyota, Fiat, Volkswagen and Audi. Hav-
ing helped revive other car brands, he hopes to
expand SEAT’s range, to cover from 50 percent to
80 percent of the domestic and European offer,
with new models in the pipeline, including a new
generation of SEAT’s flagship Ibiza product.
In addition, he would like to capitalize on
SEAT’s Barcelona base the way tech companies
trade off their Silicon Valley location. To that end,
he recently signed an accord with local authorities
to create an innovation lab in Barcelona, the sixth
such digital R&D center for Volkswagen, whose aim
is to develop smart mobility solutions that can be
leveraged by other brands across the entire inter-
national group.
On the occasion of the Innovation Chair’s
launch, de Meo sat down with Dávila at IESE to talk
about the road ahead.
TONY DÁVILA– Innovation is a term used a lot these
days: everyone wants to innovate! But innova-
tion can mean many different things and come
in many different forms. What does innova-
tion mean to you? And what does it mean for
SEAT?
LUCA DE MEO– I think if you want to boil it down to
the essence, innovation means doing surpris-
ingly useful things for people. At a company level,
innovation is about fundamentally changing how
you do things. It’s about how your organization is
designed, and how big companies relate to small
firms with big ideas.
In the case of SEAT, the core of our business
is mobility. Cars of the future will probably still
have four wheels and a steering wheel, but the car
is getting bigger than the car. If we can connect the
car with the user, the dealer and the infrastructure
all together, there are business opportunities to be
had. Belonging to Volkswagen, the largest group in
the world, allows us to stay at the cutting edge.
Innovation, for me, is not a department of an
organization. Nor is it merely a system of process-
es. More than anything, it is an attitude. There is a
quote by Ferdinand Porsche about how he pro-
ceeded to create the first Porsche: “I couldn’t find
the sports car of my dreams,” he said, “so I built it
myself.” That, to me, really captures the essence of
what it means to innovate.
TD– Investment in innovation in Spain repre-
sents 1.2 percent of GDP, which is below that
of other European countries. What role do you
think the private sector needs to play in keep-
ing Spain competitive?
LDM– To be a leading country in innovation, there
must be a balance between public and private
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4. PERSONALinsight
42 FIRST QUARTER 2017 ISSUE 32
investment, and close links with academic institu-
tions to foster competency and talent. Of course,
this is easier said than done. Governments today
are busy balancing their budgets, and so private
institutions have even greater responsibilities.
With globalization, competitiveness among
regions and countries is based on the ability to in-
novate and to generate ideas and unique products
that other countries want to buy. The only way to
create growth and jobs is to increase exports. To
make that happen, you have to create things that
no one else knows how to make. The recent suc-
cess of the German economy is down to its ability
to gain rock-solid positioning in exports.
The vast majority of companies in Spain are
small and medium-sized businesses. It is harder
for them to find the financial resources to put into
innovation. It is vital to have favorable regulatory
and bureaucratic frameworks, and to foster coop-
eration and collaboration between businesses and
universities.
TD– The big corporations that got to be
leaders by innovating are now finding it
much harder to compete against today’s
smaller, nimbler startups. What does the
emergence of new competitors in the car
industry – such as Tesla and tech giants
like Google or Apple – mean for established
companies like yours?
LDM– Every big company was a startup at the begin-
ning. As the visionary Spanish-Catalan architect
Antoni Gaudí would say, originality is about going
back to the origin. I think that a company like Tes-
la has the kind of spirit that animates big compa-
nies. It comes into this industry with a completely
different perspective. Companies like Tesla could
be seen as a threat, but my personal view is that
they are actually forcing our industry to reinvent
itself. They are stimulating the debate. As a result,
traditional car manufacturers are investing more
heavily in innovation, which is hugely positive.
Since the first production line at Ford at the
beginning of the last century, our industry has
always been about taking something revolution-
ary and getting it to the mass market. I see no
reason why this won’t happen again with the new
technology. Our challenge is to attune ourselves to
these trends coming from outside our sphere, and
learn to keep up with the tempo.
TD– Can the research-and-development de-
partment at SEAT keep up with this level of
change?
LDM– These are exciting times, but we are very
well placed. The Volkswagen group, as a whole,
is investing 13 billion euros a year in research and
development. At SEAT, we allocate 5.4 percent of
our income to R&D-related activities. Indeed, 10
percent of our employees work in areas related to
R&D. We are far more than just a factory.
At our brand-new creative laboratory,
Metropolis:Lab Barcelona, we are looking at ways
of making transportation safer, more sustainable
and more intelligent. We would like to take a pio-
neering role in arriving at zero emissions and zero
accidents.
TD– How is technology going to change the car,
as well as the car industry?
LDM– The key issues of the future are digital trans-
formation and energy efficiency. In the auto
industry, these issues fall into four main areas:
electrification; autonomous cars; connectivity; and
new mobility services like car-sharing.
Solutions to these challenges require a com-
plete transformation of the way we do business.
Right now, our companies are designed to converge
toward the stage of producing a product, and then
starting over again with the next development cy-
cle. In the new arena, we will have a horizontal and
open space, in which any points of the system will
have to interact with many others simultaneously
to create and manage ecosystems and platforms.
Customers won’t be the last link in the chain: they
will be at the heart of the network.
TD– SEAT is a brand that is very well known in
some countries, but with less brand recogni-
tion in others. What are the challenges you
face in terms of building a brand and raising
brand awareness?
LDM– In my view, benchmarking doesn’t work in
branding. You need to look for your uniqueness.
You need to find and nurture your identity, and
focus on what makes you different from all the
INTERVIEW WITH LUCA DE MEO
Theonlywaytocreategrowthandjobsistoincrease
exports.Tomakethathappen,youhavetocreate
thingsthatnooneelseknowshowtomake.”
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5. PERSONALinsight
43ISSUE 32 FIRST QUARTER 2017
competitors. For SEAT, that means making much
more of our connection with Barcelona, which is a
dynamic, vibrant city known for its design.
SEAT is a brand with a lot of potential. But, as
you say, we are relatively invisible in some mar-
kets. We need to think big and do things that make
people take notice. We have to show that we have
a relevant and unique proposition that can’t be
found in other brands.
Then, when customers buy our product, we
have to deliver. We have to keep the loyalty of that
consumer. If you are a big and established brand,
the attention and trust are already there. The only
thing you have to do is continue to deliver.
I think the world is becoming very complicated.
People are looking for companies that deliver solu-
tions. These days, the solution is not only a piece
of hardware, but it is what you build around the
car. People are looking more and more at mobil-
ity, rather than simply buying or owning a piece of
hardware. That is one of the things we are trying to
develop and deliver at SEAT.
On average, our customers are younger than
those of other European car brands. This gener-
ally makes them more connected and more geared
toward digital consumption. So, the connected car
is our priority.
TD– From Renault, Toyota and Fiat to Volkswagen,
Audi and SEAT, you have worked on many differ-
ent automotive brands. How is SEAT different
from the other brands you have worked on?
LDM– When you start working somewhere new, you
need to get under the skin of an organization and
really understand its culture and values before you
can start to interpret how to take it forward. I think
that good 21st century branding is also about work-
ing on the internal culture. If the culture of the
company doesn’t fit the promise you are making to
the consumer, one day it will all crash down around
you. I have spent the past year at SEAT learning
about its culture. I think it is a surprisingly young,
competent, easygoing and agile organization that is
very in tune with its goal of facilitating mobility.
TD– You have also worked in many different
cultures. What kind of management and
leadership competencies do you need to
INTERVIEW WITH LUCA DE MEO
Benchmarkingdoesn’tworkinbranding.Youneedto
lookforyouruniqueness...tofindandnurtureyour
identity,andfocusonwhatmakesyoudifferent.”
operate successfully in such diverse business
contexts?
LDM– I feel privileged to have had the chance in
my career to move around the world. Spain is the
twelfth country I have lived in. To now find myself
in the great city, country and culture that is Barce-
lona, Catalonia, Spain – I am enjoying it tremen-
dously. I think I am a better person for having had
the opportunity to get to know new cultures, learn
new languages and understand different societies.
When managing internationally, the first thing
you need to have is curiosity: you need to want to
learn about that culture without prejudice or pre-
conceptions. The second thing you need is respect.
If you have those two things in life, you will do a
good job.
Luca de Meo was interviewed
by Tony Dávila
Tony Dávila is a professor of Entrepreneurship
and Accounting and holder of the newly launched
SEAT Chair of Innovation. His teaching and re-
search interests focus on management systems in
entrepreneurial firms, new product development,
innovation management and performance mea-
surement. He is co-author of Making Innovation
Work and The Innovation Paradox.
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