“Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too.”
— Blaise Pascal
A Clear Eye.
On marketplace success
by Tom Asacker
“Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too.”
— Blaise Pascal
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That's the first line in a recent Forbes.com article by Larry Flint. He goes on to blame gas prices, the economy, and the auto industry slump in general. "Much of the blame lies elsewhere," he writes. "but the auto giant is in peril."
You've got to be kidding me. GM, and only GM, has made the predictions, decisions, and contingency plans that have forced them to take desperate measures like this:
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp initiated a series of steps on Monday from cutting production of trucks to offering aggressive incentives to combat the drop in demand for large vehicles amid record-high gas prices. The production cuts and increased incentives come as the largest U.S. automaker struggles with a deepening slump in U.S. auto sales amid a consumer exodus from pickup trucks and SUVs. "We really want to spark the market at the end of the month," GM's U.S. sales chief Mark LaNeve said. "We want to close the quarter strong." GM also said it hired Citigroup to help review its Hummer brand that the automaker is looking to sell or revampm (emphasis mine).
Close the quarter strong? Is he nuts? The GM bank account will shrink by another $3 billion this quarter (give or take a few hundred million). That's what a sales-driven, as opposed to a brand-driven, mentality gets you; especially during a market slow down. Instead, try creating desirable products that people are willing to pay a premium for; e.g.Totyota's Prius is on backorder.
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Your first mistake is reading an article from Forbes. I get the magazine for free and skim through it every month. I'm amazed at how wrong they are about everything.
They are so consistently wrong about everything (politics, economy, tech).
It's scary.
Posted by: MikeInAZ | June 25, 2008 at 11:59 AM