How to Fix a Flat- Hire Steve Jobs for one year to run General Motors

[Ichingcarpenter]

How to Fix a Flat
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

How could these companies be so bad for so long? Clearly the combination of a very un-innovative business culture, visionless management and overly generous labor contracts explains a lot of it. It led to a situation whereby General Motors could make money only by selling big, gas-guzzling S.U.V.’s and trucks. Therefore, instead of focusing on making money by innovating around fuel efficiency, productivity and design, G.M. threw way too much energy into lobbying and maneuvering to protect its gas guzzlers.

This included striking special deals with Congress that allowed the Detroit automakers to count the mileage of gas guzzlers as being less than they really were — provided they made some cars flex-fuel capable for ethanol. It included special offers of $1.99-a-gallon gasoline for a year to any customer who purchased a gas guzzler. And it included endless lobbying to block Congress from raising the miles-per-gallon requirements. The result was an industry that became brain dead.

Nothing typified this more than statements like those of Bob Lutz, G.M.’s vice chairman. He has been quoted as saying that hybrids like the Toyota Prius “make no economic sense.” And, in February, D Magazine of Dallas quoted him as saying that global warming “is a total crock of .”

These are the guys taxpayers are being asked to bail out.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>snip

“In return for any direct government aid,” he wrote, “the board and the management should go. Shareholders should lose their paltry remaining equity. And a government-appointed receiver — someone hard-nosed and nonpolitical — should have broad power to revamp G.M. with a viable business plan and return it to a private operation as soon as possible. That will mean tearing up existing contracts with unions, dealers and suppliers, closing some operations and selling others and downsizing the company ... Giving G.M. a blank check — which the company and the United Auto Workers union badly want, and which Washington will be tempted to grant — would be an enormous mistake.”

>>>>>>>>>snip

Lastly, somebody ought to call Steve Jobs, who doesn’t need to be bribed to do innovation, and ask him if he’d like to do national service and run a car company for a year. I’d bet it wouldn’t take him much longer than that to come up with the G.M. iCar.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/opinion/12friedman.html?ex=1384232400&en=f97617c243b0e2a4&ei=5124&partner=digg&exprod=digg

[tridim]

1. I couldn't afford the iGas.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Did you read the damn article?

or are you just a smart ass.

[David Dunham]

3. Not a good approach

[tridim]

4. A smart ass.

[whistler162]

5. The only problem is he wqould sell it to Disney after turning it around!

sorry slightly PO'd former Pixar shareholder.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. What would you do with the current management of GM?

Screw your shares of pixar, you are buying GM now like it or not.

[whistler162]

7. Give them a broom and minimum wage!

[Cobalt-60]

9. That's a good question

I think I'd put them to work in a nice third world sweatshop.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. So, we'd get a Chevy that costs $60,000 and had...

a proprietary operating system nobody could fix.

Here's yet another cloud of gas from someone who's never run a candy store, much less a multinational manufacturing operation.

It's all GM's fault that a Tahoe gets you a much better tax break than a Buick and so many people were lining up to pay full price for a full-sized pickup that Toyota and Nissan built their own rhinestone cowboy mobiles to catch up. (And which they recently ceased production of) Even Porsche got into the mix, horrifying the auto world with an SUV of its own. Meanwhile, every Chevy and Pontiac dealer got stuck with a lot full of small cars they couldn't give away because the word got out by people who never, ever would think of looking at one that they were shit.

You just gotta have a big honkin' ol' SUV or your kids will die was the mantra. What, the dealers kidnapped you when you walked on the lot and tortured you till you bought a Navigator?

Yeah, sure, it makes a lot of sense to pay an $8,000 premium for a hybrid that saves you 600 bucks a year on gas-- that's why I want two Escape hybrids. Oh, wait! The Escape can't exist because that would mean Ford came up with the idea, and we all know any US company is run by a bunch of ignorant assholes who can't think beyond this afternoon's coffee break.

Toyota's the wonder company because it has the Prius, but somehow it's going down the tubes too. Maybe Toyota fans forgot it makes its serious profits from Highlanders and Lexuses. Just like GM. And got its R&D for the Prius from the government. Just like GM wants.

And, finally, blaming GM for not jumping on Hillary's healthcare plan is really a stretch. Did Hillary have a way for the UAW to see its contracts voided without complaint?

[comtec]

13. You forgot about the EV1 which was a fantastic car that GM destroyed

and all of the standard ICE engines designs the have in cold storage that get superior mileage then any other car on the road including the prius.

don't forget all of the bulk FREE tech that is invented and innovated at all the UNIVERSITIES across the country!!!

GM gets all kinds of money for RnD but the BEST RnD happens at universities as a part of routine engineering courses. GM and the like swoop down, buy up the tech, et al, and buries it forever.

lets remember that here in EUROPE Ford has been selling the KA!, a EXCELLENT small car that gets excellent gas mileage, and is very affordable, that will N E V E R see a road in the US.

American car companies make great cars....when they want to.

edit: stupid comment on my part.

[TreasonousBastard]

14. Sorry, but the EV-1 was a piece of shit that had...

little commercial viability outside of a very small market. It was experimental, and the experiment failed. Notice that even now NOT ONE real car company has a plug-in all-electric vehicle in the planning stage, and the new guys with big plans are all on the rocks.

The EV-1 was:

Very expensive and so highly subsidized by GM.

Short range, made shorter if you wanted heat or A/C. Or had hills.

Uncomfortable, with little usable space.

Riddled with long term reliability, warranty, and liability problems.

A large part of the problem was ancient battery technology, only now just barely being addressed.

You won't see most econoboxes sold in Japan and Europe over here because it takes several years and a billion or so to get a car certified here, and most manufacturers don't see any way to get the money back with the tiny profits from a small car. Fiat and Renault just plain got out of the US business, and Volkswagen almost did. The Japanese are selling little cars like the Yaris and Fit over here, but no one's saying if they're actually making any money at it. Ford tried the "World Car" experiment with the Mondeo, but that fell on its face when it tried to satisfy every market, and satisfied few.

The Smart is probably the best example of how an interesting European idea gets all fucked up coming over here-- it costs a bundle and has lousy gas mileage, but it's still uncomfortable and still doesn't hold more than a small bag of groceries. A very small bag.

[comtec]

16. Not true

E V E R Y single person who had an EV-1 offered GM money to buy it out right.

GM flat out refused.

Look up Who killed the electric car.

I knew people who had them, they loved their EV-1's. There WA a market, and the batteries were literally top of the line, bleeding edge tech that we are only NOW starting to see in larger sizes.

GM sold the patent !!!!! to oil companies that quashed ANY attempt to make a battery of type large enough to drive a car!

As far as the smart.. it's a joke even here. The mileage is fair, but it's TINY even by euro standards. It has the novelty of being able to drive INTO a parking spot, facing the sidewalk (2 per current car spot).

They are making a electric and hybrid model which are being tested in germany and the UK right now.

That aside I don't understand YOUR point... I pointed out that the US HAS BEEN a leader in making innovative techs, and that bothers you?

The EV-1 WAS a success that was killed because the oil lobby is M A S S I V E and quashed it.

GM and the rest are "playing catchup" because they were too stupid and greedy to let the innovative technology they have come to light.

[Demeter]

10. Tom, Tom, Tom....

When you go for a laugh, you ought to make the joke on yourself....oh, I see, that's what you did!

[CaptainObvious]

11. Steve Jobs

would outsource all the manufacturing to China.

:eyes:

[Locrian]

12. Thomas Friedman?!

Thomas Friedman (world is flat asshole) is, well, an asshole of gigantic proportions. A hack globalist, now he wants to fix the industry? Asshat. These free market leg humpers are exactly what is wrong with this mess.


Until you change the rules of the game: ie big tax breaks on SUV vehicles, etc it will not change. Golden boy Steve Jobs or not.
BTW - Why do people think Jobs is so hot? Because he can market some high tech gizmo made in china? BFD.

Fire the execs who are raping the country. Get RID of stock options. Cut the overhead golden boy management/ vp / ceo /exec layer that is parasitic and put real engineers, etc in charge. There will be complaints that this isnt what is "best" for business which always means the f-ing stock market. Screw it. As if it could be worse than where they are now?

Sad thing is that corporations at one time long ago were NOT about generating stock wealth. They were about making something for society. We need to get back to the "utility" of a company vs them being a parasitic / quasi -economic terrorist.

[KG]

15. 'overly generous labor contracts' - but no comment on overly generous exec compensation

esp since those execs have driven and entire industry into the toilet.

[Sherman A1]

17. You noticed that too.....

Yeah, first thing is to tear up them union contracts for those fat & lazy union guys that are making boatloads of money :sarcasm: