Dec 28 2008
Healing The Big Three
The big three automakers are in trouble and it is there own fault.
Interestingly I have talked to friends both liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican. We all agree that the government should not bail out GM, Chrysler or Ford because they got in the bind they are in by their own self-centered mismanagement. They all thought they could do whatever they liked and that the customers would follow them. Sorry, your customers aren’t sheep and to think they are is just conceited stupidity.
There used to be an old saying that “what is good for GM is good for the country.” That tells you exactly where the problem lies. As anyone who is in tune with the marketplace can tell you, it should have been “what is good for the country is good for GM.” Basically, if you concentrate on your customer your business will succeed.
If you do what is right for your customers you will succeed on two fronts. First, even in the unlikely event that you do fail financially, you will have done some good for the world. And secondly, if you are doing right by your customers they will support you and stand behind you. They will want you to succeed. And that alone is more than half the battle.
Truthfully, I am not sure if it is too late for the big auto makers. I am sure it is already too late for their executives though. The guys at the top are too selfish to do what is right by their customers, their companies, or their countries. They have proven that by their attitudes and action. The best thing they could do is step down, and if they won’t step down they should be removed.
The only way the big three can be fixed is if they, and the labor unions who work for them, quit focusing on themselves and turn their attention to giving the customers what is wanted. How in the world does flying a corporate jet aid the customer? It doesn’t. How does haggling at the dealership until utter frustration sets in help the customer? It doesn’t. How does making too large gas guzzling old technology help the customer? It doesn’t. See how simple the test is? Just cut out all the junk that isn’t good for the customer out. Focus on your customer and you can’t lose.
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Tags: automakers, Cars, customers, finance, social media
I don’t think it’s as simple as you make it out to be. You’re right about how bad the executives are, and the proof is that Ford says they don’t need a bailout- just a line of credit in case the other two going bankrupt disrupts their suppliers. Now, since Ford and GM have the same UAW contracts, and Ford isn’t broke, it’s proof that bad management is more damaging than a bad labor contract.
The haggling is done by the dealership, not corporate. Any dealership of any brand could declare a fixed price, non-haggle policy if they so chose. On the other hand, I doubt the big two could legally force the dealerships to fix set prices.
As to the big gas guzzlers, THAT IS WHAT THE CUSTOMERS WANTED. The auto makers didn’t build SUVs nobody wanted and force people at gun point to buy them. For the last ten years, dealerships had to sell small cars at little or no profit in order to sell enough of them to make quota, so corporate would send them the minivans, SUVs, and pickups that people actually wanted and they could make money on. That didn’t change until the price of gas doubled in six months last year- and now that it’s gone back down, and is predicted to stay that way for a while, don’t look for econobox sales to stay high.
Let’s face it- people are hypocritical about cars and congressmen. They say all congressmen are corrupt, but vote to reelect THEIR congressman; they say they want hybrids because that’s what they think they’re supposed to say- but they BUY minivans, trucks, and SUVs.
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Now that gas prices are down, SUV sales are back up.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97583130
When will we ever learn?
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