General Motors

This company must surely long for the "good ol' days" of the mid 40's through early 70's. Oil was inexpensive at a price of one to a few dollars/barrel, the gasoline supply was well endowed, the federal highway project in full swing, no direct foreign competition from other parts of the world (read: Japan and Europe) as most every nation was rebuilding from World War 2, and the growing American infatuation with the automobile were all factors that put General Motors in the right place at the right time and allowed for profitable operations. Circumstances at the time permitted the company to not have to pursue ideas of grand innovation. Sure, it came out with newly designed cars each year, but nothing revolutionary, even though it marketed its products as such. It simply pumped out car after car, believing there was sustainable growth for what are now gas guzzling road hogs.

Today's circumstances do not come close to reflecting those of the baby boom generation, yet the cultural worldview at GM remains stuck there, in the mud, dragging the company down, sinking like its junk grade bond rating. GMC may claim to manufacture all vehicles to a professional grade but financial performance trumps marketing slogans. The Goldie Locks and the Three Bears commercial marketing the new H3 was probably developed before the product itself was even conceived of. The marketers and designers meeting probably went something like this: We need 3 similar cars but of different sizes. Why don't we just rescale the hummer, again, because we can't seem to come up with anything else? That way we will have three different sizes of Hummers for each of the three Bears. It's perfect!!!

This is the myopic or even regressive thinking entrenched in too many corporations, not just American. The Global Circumstance is changing: global oil supply is set to outpace global production (a point we can only determine with hindsight) energy prices are increasing, traffic congestionbasic higway infrastructure problems. For the first time this month I heard Iraq referred to as the beginning of a long period of energy wars (I think this is different than the idea of a war for oil). Consumers realise that things are changing but the corporate supply of vehicles is slow to change to their tastes. As evidence of this just look at the long waiting lines for hybrid cars, the ever decreasing demand for SUV's and the increased use of public transportation in spite of fare increases and route cuts (at least here in the Twin Cities). Yet the idea that comes out of the big auto makers is "Let's release another Hummer!"

Welp... end rant. P.S. My spell check function isn't working.