Will the Last Person Leaving Detroit Please Turn Off the Light on Their Way Out?

There's another good post over at Tom Peters' blog, written by a Mike Neiss, The View From Home.

After reading my colleague John O'Leary's blog about his Shanghai experience, I was struck by the contrasts to what I see from my viewpoint here in the rust belt of the great American Midwest. John saw bright lights and energy! I drove past an empty factory with a sole security light protecting an empty parking lot. Ford announced another restructuring plan—closing ten facilities and eliminating thirty thousand jobs. Add that to the previously announced plans at GM to close nine facilities and eliminate another thirty thousand jobs and you can almost feel the life breath leaving these once proud companies. It is dark and cold here in Michigan this morning. No lights, no energy ...

I will leave it to my more well-read friends to argue the macroeconomic reasons for the sorry state of our auto industry, and offer instead some cut the crap observations:

1) We may have invented capitalism, but we took our eye off the ball. Perhaps it is our complacency, but the truth of the matter is that we are being outworked from the boardroom to the factory floor. In my travels overseas, I have seen a hunger for success far greater than what I see at home. If your counterpart anywhere in the world is willing to work harder then you, they win, you lose. This applies whether you are a CEO or a pipe-fitter.

2) GM is restructuring their executive team, bringing in European talent to save the day. Ford did that. DaimlerChrysler did that. U.S. business schools and grads take note. Where's the homegrown talent? If you can pull your eyes away from your spreadsheets, you might be able to see what we are missing.

3) Ford wants to attract younger buyers. Here's a big clue ... old designers can't design for young taste. Unless talent and performance starts meaning more than seniority and entitlement, it isn't going to work. Put a 25 year old in charge of design. And make it a woman.

4) Throttle back on the cost-cutting mentality. I drive a U.S. nameplate vehicle. Mechanically, it's great. Design ain't bad. But the radio quit, the rear window washer failed, and the latch on the glove box doesn't hold it closed. I am sure they were fashioned with the lowest cost components. Cost does not equal value ... and low cost parts decrease brand equity for a very long time.

5) And suck it up. No one is doing this to you. It is a fate you have created for yourself. While the big three are closing facilities, Toyota is building U.S. capacity with new factories. Apparently, you can make money, and lots of it, building vehicles here in the U.S.

What Neiss wrote about the American auto industry applies not only to that industry, it applies to all American industries. After living in east Asia for four years, one thing I can tell you about Asians is that they will out-compete, out-work, and out-study the average American or Canadian. The economies here are growing very strongly, and will continue to grow strongly as long as they maintain these values. Let me give you an example.

In Busan, South Korea, there are underground shopping centers that lie underneath major streets. I used to walk through one such shopping center that ran from Seomyeon (downtown Busan; pronounced "Suh-myuhn") and the school where I taught, perhaps a kilometer away. And underneath this street were two wide corridors that were lined - on both sides - with numerous small shops. So, imagine, if you will, four long rows of stores, usually 15 feet wide, running for over half a mile. Now there were a number of different types of stores, men's clothing, camera shops, backpack shops, and so on, but 90% of all of the stores sold women's clothing. Literally, about 200 stores selling women's clothes (of all types) within a kilometer's distance of each other (and this didn't count all the other stores, both in that neighborhood and in others, above ground and below ground, that also sold women's clothing). That's competition! And this is just one example of one small industry. I could give other examples (and maybe will, insha'allah, in future posts).

But this is also very representative of Asian competition. Asians compete fiercely, in many aspects of life, and they will gladly take away your business if you are too lazy. And this is why Shanghai is doing so well, along with Singapore, and Korea, and Japan, and...well, you get the picture. This is also why Ford and GM are continuing to have massive layoffs. Believe me, I won't shed a tear for American business. They've earned their problems.

The Customer is Always...?

Tom Peters had a post about a banner found at the Hua Xin Li Dress Co., Ltd. in China (Slogan from the Godless Commies ...). One person, who left a comment on the blog, listed a few of his (or her) favorite quotations on customers. I thought these were worth sharing:

"If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful." - Jeff Bezos.

"I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It's done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that they are taking the mickey out of the consumer." - Richard Branson

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." - Bill Gates

"In our way of working, we attach a great deal of importance to humility and honesty; With respect for human values, we promise to serve our customers with integrity." - Azim Premji

"Each Wal-Mart store should reflect the values of its customers and support the vision they hold for their community." - Sam Walton

"It helps a ton when you learn people's names and don't butcher them when trying to pronounce them." - Jerry Yang

"Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business." - Zig Ziglar

It's sort of ironic that I should find this list of quotations today as I had a really terrible experience waiting in line at the bank during my lunch hour. Extremely slow service (and not for the first time). This bank (UOB) needs its tellers to get some additional training in customer service and queue management.

Does this make me a groupie now? ;)

This is one of those "I've died and gone to heaven" moments. The other day, I left a comment on one of Tom Peter's posts ("I Disagree!") at his blog. Now I've been a big fan of Tom's books since the '80s, and today I found that Tom had personally responded to my comment. My comment above (in black), followed by Tom's response (in blue):


Robert Floyd wrote: "...they [non-profits] do not understand that they must run their organization like a business if they want to survive."

I started my own non-profit a few years ago, and I've worked as an accountant for another (very large) one. The thing is, non-profits *are* businesses, the only difference being, they're trying to minimize their profits. Otherwise, the principles of business (whether it's accounting, management, finance, marketing, etc.) all apply. Non-profits must be run as a business, period.

Posted by JD at December 1, 2005 02:37 AM

JD, I remember addressing Boy Scout leaders years ago. Couldn't figure out what to say. Then I talked to one of their top people. He said, "Say what you always say." He went on to add that the Boy Scouts were in a life and death competitive struggle like any other business. "We compete for boys' attention," he said. "That attention increasingly goes to TV, computer games, etc. We need more 'mind share.'" I was amused-amazed that he was out me-ing me.

Posted by tom peters at December 1, 2005 07:24 AM

I haven't had this feeling since meeting Alan Parsons for the first time ;) (but that's another story).

Bluetooth in the Bathroom

Steve Yastrow has an amusing post on Tom Peters' blog (he of In Search of Excellence fame) regarding cell/hand/mobile phone (take your pick) usage. He notes that society is changing as we become more comfortable in using hand phones. People (presumably, he's referring to Americans in particular) are not as embarrassed to be seen talking to an invisible "other."

"Years ago, we started to see people walking through airports talking on cellphones with headsets. In order not to seem like wierdos talking to themselves, these folks would routinely hold the headset microphone to their mouths, so you could clearly see that they were on the phone.

"Then people dropped their hands from their headsets, assuming you'd know they were on the phone because of the cord dangling from their ear. After a while, the introduction of the bluetooth headset took away that cord, but by then nobody was self-conscious anymore, and it became commonplace to see people walking through airline terminals talking without shame to an unseen companion."


Now, it appears that men aren't afraid of talking in the one place that seems to have been the most taboo for guys having a conversation - the bathroom:

"Many times in the past year I've walked into an airport men's room and seen a lone man standing at a bank of urinals, actively engaged in a hands-free conversation with someone hundreds of miles away, presumably with a hidden bluetooth headset in his ear."


The question that struck me about this article is, how will Asian culture adapt to the Bluetooth headset? When I was in Korea, a couple years ago, I was introduced to the custom of covering one's mouth while talking on a hand phone. Speaking loudly in public is considered rude behavior in Asia, and Koreans (and other Asians) try to avoid doing so, especially while talking on a hand phone.

The question now is, how will Asians be able to keep their voice levels down and remain "polite" while using Bluetooth? It's hard to say. Here in S'pore, it's becoming more common to see people (mostly businessmen) talking away somewhat loudly while using their Bluetooth. But Singaporean society, in general, seems to be getting louder and louder (in their speech). It would be nice to see how this issue is playing out in some other countries, like Korea and Japan.