Tomorrow is not the same
By:
Gerardo Enrique Garibay Camarena
March-19-2007
We live in a time of transformations, where, like never before, circumstances ad paradigms change at great
speed, not only in politics, but in economy and society as well.
A few weeks ago there was another example of this phenomenon, when 2 analysts from Bloomberg, (one of
the most respected agencies of financial info, property of New York’s Mayor, Michael Bloomberg) announced that is only
a matter of time for Toyota to surpass GM and become the largest vehicle seller in the world, maybe before the end of the
decade.
The relevance of the report lies in the fact that GM has kept the leadership of the car industry for over
80 years. However, in recent times, the Detroit-based company has been suffering a serious crisis, propelled by the loss of
market share in the U.S.,
monstrous losses in Europe (more than 3 billion dollars in 4 years) and the growing competition.
Because of this, GM has been forced to close Oldsmobile (it’s oldest subsidiary brand), and factories across North America,
as part of a global restructure that also includes the massive closing of job posts, in a desperate attempt to cut the financial
bleeding and stabilize the ship.
At the same time, Toyota has been entering
new regions and carrying a successful struggle for the American market. Ironically, while Ford and GM produce more and more
of their vehicles in Latin America o Asia, Toyota is building more plants and cars in the U.S., which reflects in the increase of it’s sales, that reached the 2 million units,
in the North America alone, on 2005
A few months ago, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial from James P. Womack, who explained the
reasons behind the defeat of the Detroit’s Big Guys, among which were: Toyota’s superior engineering process;
that GM and Ford over crush their suppliers; that Toyota has created a team-work environment far better that it’s competitors;
that GM and Ford have too many brands (Chevrolet, Pontiac, Hummer, etc.) while Toyota only has 2 or 3, resulting on an easier
productive process, and, finally, that GM and Ford keep seeing clients as strangers for one transaction, while Toyota offers
them a better treatment. To all those factors you still have to add the distrust between Unions and GM’s management,
which difficult the cooperation on hard times.
This doesn’t mean that GM is a bad company, in fact, you need to do your work quite well to be the
leader for 80 years, but it does mean that, despite being a successful company, hasn’t adapted to the changes as well
as it could have.
The lesson of this story is the need to be willing to continuous improvement, whether in an enterprise,
in the government, in a political party, or any organization. It doesn’t matter how successful you’re, you need
watch for the changes, the symptoms of weakening and the treats that come along with continuity, because, otherwise, sooner
than later will arrive a competitor that, aware of that conditions, will take the lead. We better be watchful, because, I
assure you, these days tomorrow is not the same
garibaycamarena@hotmail.com
https://sinmediastintas.tripod.com/inenglish
