11th
Changing world, why are we behind?
I read a story today here that made me think of my previous career. I started typing a response to my friend who emailed it to me and decided to blog instead.
I have a lot of philosophies why the American car companies fail and the Japanese are outpacing us. It seems that whenever GM spun off Saturn they had the chance to right the wrongs that were leading to this point, they could have chosen the clean slate path and created a new company with GM $$ backing the r&d and styling. They even tried to build the saturn family work environment to mirror the japanese companies and if they could only have based pay scales on performance and success of the company it might have worked. Instead they built the plant with all of the same GM corporate baggage including lack of vehicles that anyone wanted. Then they infected the plant with the same UAW that demands the a piece of the winnings without accepting any of the losses.
There are so many other reasons right now that the hands are changing, but the one bright spot is that there are companies that are investing in the American workforce. However, as an American I want to see our companies figuring out how to make things work in the new future. The Japanese companies built their structures on adaptability from the ground to the top. There are so many US corporations that are so topheavy and unprepared for economic downturns that it just seems ridiculous in hindsight.
So here’s to looking forward and maybe some massive changes to some of OUR companies turning the tides and bringing about CHANGE!
