No risk bailouts, or How I Invented the SuperCar

I’m a bit perturbed.  You could see the US car companies struggling years ago, eating up their political capital and brandname until they had to (literally) compare their cars to Toyota in order to get noticed.  Remember those Malibu commercials?  I thought that was lame.

Here’s what else “grinds my gears”.  All of the US car companies were supposed to come back with a plan that would bring them back to the top.  In exchange, the gov’t would give them some money and everyone wins right?  Too bad their plans suck.

Generally, the recipe was:

1. cut lines (no more Saturn or Pontiac?)
2. reduce models
3. give ownership stake to the union.

Yawn.

If I were GM, this is the curve ball I would have thrown.  It would have been bold, visionary…CRAZY.  And it would be all that people were talking about.  Toyota and Honda would be like, “wait, wtf?!”

Here’s the deal, I (GM) don’t lay down any plan for my current car lines, instead, I give the manufacturing rights to Chrysler or Ford or even directly to the UAW to handle the management of manufacturing and excise a little bit of licensing fee for them using my names (there, no more labor issue).

So now I have a lean company all focused on R&D and maintaining my brand.  I make a few profound statements:

1. When we come back from our manufacturing hiatus, we’re going to introduce only 1 car per line (maybe even fewer).
2. all of these cars will go above and beyond the US’s plans for alternative fuel.
3. these cars will drive themselves.
4. we may or may not ever want to manufacture again (I may just license and co-brand/collaborate)

Why would I do this?  Cause I hate being a follower.  If I’m GM, I’ve just flipped the bird to the status quo and exerted by own vision on EVERY car manufacturer in the world.  I’ve ditched my baggage, taken the highest ground and charted the course for a decade of R&D.

Now, you’re probably thinking, ‘impossible’.  You’d be right: but only because we didn’t let these companies fail.  Imagine if the US said ‘buh-bye’ to Chrysler.  It’d be easier to drum up a bold plan because failure was possible.  Instead, we all take the stance and mouth the words that these companies are “too big to fail”.  That’s just a sorry excuse.

I’m a bit selfish though, ’cause I think commuting is a huge drain on my schedule (mostly sleep).  Imagine if no one had to drive 2 hours to work (and they could work on the way to work).  Productivity is up!

http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/PIVO2/index.html

Filed under: for fun, random thoughts