Rethinking Detroit
Umair Haque has opened a thread on HBR’s site for readers to comment on the US car maker’s issues and what might turn them around.
Some of my favorite comments:
-Over the years, the Detroit auto industry has continually failed to respond to the needs of the market. IMO, part of this has to do with the fact that the people who build these products don’t have to sell them.
-I like the idea of a return to the pre mass production days of auto makers and coachbuilders, allowing the car maker to turn every model into a platform that can be customized and redesigned through an open system. It would allow the carmakers to keep a strong industrial base: manufacturing engines, transmissions, and some of the more generic/scalable car parts and drastically lower the barriers to entry for new car companies to enter the marketplace.
-The american automakers en masse missed their opportunity to stay leaders in alternative energy transportation, and meanwhile, scared their competition into eating their lunch because they decided to pursue that line of work.
-They can start by abandoning their persistence to convergence and DIVERGE. For example: does the world really need a Ford Fusion AND a Mercury Milan or a Saturn Sky AND and Pontiac Solstice?
