As the top management of Bosch thought long and hard about new strategic business fields, the field of commercial vehicle and off-road (CVO) was still no more than a promising idea. Market studies showed that it was more than that. In this segment, encompassing trucks and 4000 hp construction machines, forklifts and harvesters, there is a potential for growth in the billions of euros in countries with increasingly strict environmental and safety regulations as well as in emerging regions with cities whose populations are rapidly exceeding the one million mark.

To date, Bosch has not been able to tap the full potential of the market because of its organisational structure. Left to their own devices, most of the divisions struggled to offer CVO customers tailored solutions. At the beginning of this year, a stand-alone, effective unit was created for the commercial and off-road vehicle field.

The associates are not only focusing on major customers, but also paying attention to the entire spectrum of customers in the area, including small providers.

"We are not a division and are not comparable to any other known structure from the Mobility Solutions business sector," says Johannes-Jörg Rüger, Head of the organisation. The new unit is rather a "sales organization with integrated system development" that closely cooperates with all the divisions.

Marketing director Anton Beer sees the following advantages: As a cross-divisional organisation, CVO can offer the customer ‘big-picture solutions.' "If the customer wants to increase their efficiency, we don't just look at the injection system," Beer explains. "We consider all the applications. That requires the support of multiple divisions."