Article: Al Kasper to Retire from Savage Arms® - Current President Chris Bezzina Named as New CEO

[J.Baker]

You can view the page at http://www.savageshooters.com/content.php?593-Al-Kasper-to-Retire-from-Savage-Arms®-Current-President-Chris-Bezzina-Named-as-New-CEO

[glennh]

i am really glad to see an operation guy at the top, that means an eye for quality processes that will yeild a more constistent and dependable product. With so many competitors out there short cutting- please keep your eye on quality and innovation even when the competition is getting dirt cheap...

[J.Baker]

Biggest problem I've seen at Savage over the years has been that the desires of sales/marketing always take precedent over engineering when it comes to product design/features which is bass-ackwards. Unfortunately this has been the culture at Savage since long before I started this site in 2002, and even with all the changes that have occurred at leadership positions in that time that culture has persisted. The way it should work is that 1) marketing should identify any gaps in their product line or the market as a whole that they could offer a product to fill via market research. From there, 2) the engineers should develop a product to fill that gap in the product line or market. Finally, 3) it's sales/marketing's job to promote and sell said product that engineering put forth.

Present culture has the marketing folks dictating design elements which they shouldn't be, and it has bitten Savage in the butt numerous times over the last 20 years. A prime example would be the Brian Herrick's Folly - the Model 40 which was based on the Mark II/93R rimfire design but couldn't handle the pressures of the smaller centerfire cartridges they wanted to offer it in (22 Hornet, .223 Rem and .204 Ruger). The reason I refer to it as Brian Herrick's Folly is because Brian was the VP of Sales & Marketing at the time and he had pre-sold tens of thousands of these Model 40's before the design was ever proven to be viable which obviously never happened. A very small number of Model 40's in .22 Hornet were shipped out to dealers, but they're as rare as hens teeth. With all those orders already in-hand for a non-viable product, Savage's engineering team then had to scramble to come up with an all new design that Savage could fill those orders with - that design is what we know today as the Model 25. Unfortunately with the Model 25 being a new and unique design unto itself, it drove the price up considerably and really missed the mark at an "affordable utilitarian varmint rifle" that the Model 40 was originally intended to be.

Another example would be the B-Mag with it's goofy bolt handle design and the "birds beak" rear bolt shroud that was standard on early models. Apparently (as I was told by a now retired engineer) the engineering dept. was ordered to develop six different bolt handle designs and of those the hollow barrel-style bolt handle is the one the marketing folks ultimately chose even though ergonomically it's by far the worst design you could imagine. The rear "birds beak" bolt shroud had a pointy extension on the top that extended rearward out over the tang safety and resembled a birds beak. This was another styling decision made by the marketing department at the time, and one which Savage would ultimately have to issue a recall for over claims the "beak" could somehow disengage the tang safety when cycling the bolt creating a safety issue.