Caution – long post ahead
I think a lot of you got it wrong. Like Lawrence said and many others believe it is the other countries and our buying habits that have caused all these problems in our economy. It is much more complex than that.
Ok I concede that I or you like to buy things cheap but we can’t control GM or Ford, THE ONLY AMERICAN CAR MAKERS LEFT, so I say the burden for these problems lays with GM and Ford exclusively.
Look GM has had this management attitude, not unlike IBM, where their thinking is out of management manuals of the 1920’s which Alfred Sloan created and they have never changed. They have reorganized (four times since 1980) with the same corporate culture but nothing else. Ford on the other hand has at least changed with the times; three times to be exact but still suffer from the nepotism and must be a family business thing.
Management of a company dictates its success and GM will not come out of this alive because at the top there is no sacrifices that shows confidence in the company, i.e. stock dumped after announcements of lay offs. If Wagoner and Lutz would do what Iacocca did in the 80’s (no not ask the government to bail them out);
• Take a firm stand and be leaders
• Show intent by not taking a salary
• Have a real plan that is clear to everyone and has a goal
• Trim upper management a lot and reduce salaries in management in general
• Go out and recruit engineers that don’t think in a box, even from overseas
• Get the concept to product life cycle reduced to a reasonable level – VERY IMPORTANT
• Design cars and trucks (look I said NO SUVs) that people want
• Reduce the price of the vehicles overall instead of crappy incentive plans
• Maybe reduce the product line (I think the days of the multi-branding of the same car is almost over) and revive some of the Ford concepts of one car line, one price idea that let Ford survive the 1930’s and 1950’s
• Make the dealers accountable and cancel franchises if need be to show the public that they want to be your car company
Then the company may survive.
The attitude at GM has always been “I will make my money and the hell with the companyâ€, which Wall Street and consumers actually see.
The Japanese have been taught how to run a company by Americans in the 1950s. Yes Virginia, there was a real Santa Clause but the American auto makers in the early 1950’s killed him, he went the way of the Tucker. For some reason the person was laughed at when he presented this to the Americans and went overseas to see if it really worked, which we know it did. But since the 1980’s the Americans have been trying to catch up and have yet to come close.
There is this issue that our government needs to protect these companies, WRONG. GM, Ford and even D-C are MULTINATIONAL companies and the US market is not the only market they are in. It is difficult to understand the other markets but Ford seems to be doing better than GM in these other markets and they are the professionals who should know all of his stuff. The bad thing is, is this; if GM is complaining about competition in the US market, then they did not learn a thing being in the other markets about how to compete with these “foreign†car makers and deserve what they get.
Back to the government’s role; I think they need to assist but that’s all. See it is congress that has agreed to things like GATT that cause a lot of problems here; mainly taking away our sovereignty (but that is another subject for another time) and not allowing us to set tariffs and duties properly according to our needs. I am greatly offended by my governor who went to Washington to ask for help for the big three. She offended me by her attitude that D-C needs US government help, which is a foreign car company, not an American and they have the entire country of Germany backing them. She has yet brought anything but grief to Michigan and the companies that remain here.
Now everyone blames the union for much of this, which I only blame the UAW for their position not to protect all their rank and file but being selective in their protection. What I mean is that you need to look at the GM/Caprice mess of the mid 90’s to see that the UAW went against their charter to allow competition for jobs within the company. This is one thing that many lost respect for the UAW and in turn don’t really care if the UAW survives (labor day is just a holiday for a picnic). In addition for me it is the free computers, the unreal bonuses that I don’t think they deserved and the fact that many UAW workers have had an attitude they are better than everyone else. These are personal things that I have directly experienced in my life. Oh yea the UAW does not support other unions like the Germans or English unions, which are their brothers in arms so to speak, remember solidarity?
This idea that the Canadians and Americans are one in the same is really offensive to me and should be to the Canadians who pride themselves as, well Canadians. No offense towards the Canadian EO members or Canadians in general, Canada is a great country and have it together with many things I wish we did, but it is a foreign country as much as Mexico. See many people believe that supporting the CAW you are also supporting the UAW and they are the same but it is not; different country, different laws, and foremost a better attitude. If you can’t support Mexico (as a fellow North American) you should not support Canada in the same light as the US. I strongly feel that the CAW is the same as the German and English unions and if you as a union member can’t support all of them then don’t say anything.
I look at it this way, my Caravan is a foreign car made in a foreign country (Canada) and my Dodge ram is a foreign car made in foreign country (Mexico). My GMC van is the only American made vehicle but its rear axle and transmission were made in Mexico.
The last thing is this idea that many problems are cause by health care, wrong again. GM is large enough to start their own health insurance company (could be part of GMAC) and control the cost of health care. Or at least negotiate with the health care insurance companies for rates that are tied to inflation or something along those lines. See many don’t understand that health insurance companies are non-profit and are not supposed to make any money, but they have deep reserves and their upper management makes millions in salaries and bonuses. For some reason the American people are high jacked by these insurance companies and no one realizes that third party payer system is really the problem, not the actual cost of the procedures and liability insurance. I find it odd that no one (like the AARP) is asking for the government to investigate them to see what they are really doing. One last thing about health cost, if GM was really serious about reducing healthcare cost, they would demand that some procedures are not paid for that is elective. The insurance company has to pay for these elective surgeries somehow and they do this by increasing their rates. You can fill in what these elective surgeries yourself.
I could go on and on about the auto companies but I think you all get the picture.
