| Archives
- Quote of the Day |
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Management:
Taylorism
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Careers:
knowledge workers |
Global Business:
(see also Mexico)
bailouts
Post-Cold War
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Marketing:
promotions |
Casting
Industry:
values(1)
values (2) |
Investment:
market timing |
Mexico:
Hoy!
robots or Mexico
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Product Development:
Bob Lutz
Enclyclopedia Britannic
Formula
One
Mustang
Skunk Works
Tiger's clubs |
| "For
decades automotive product developers, especially at GM, tried
to design vehicles that appealed to the broadest number of people.
On the surface this makes sense. But it often results in bland,
lowest-common-denominator cars and trucks. At Chrysler, Mr.
Lutz decided the better strategy was to produce vehicles that
were the first choice of, say, 25% of buyers instead of the
second or third choice of everyone." (Paul Ingrassia, writing
in The Wall Street Journal, August 8, 2001, about the
appointment of Bob Lutz to head product development at GM.) |
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"For
Chrysler these days, it may be robots or Mexico"
-- New York Times headline, Tuesday, April 24, 2001,
over an article about a new, modern Jeep factory near Toledo
and increased production for the PT Cruiser in Mexico.
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"They are
really playing into the stereotype of the arrogant German
manager." -- Anonymous DaimlerChrysler
employee (and operator of www.ChryslerTakeover.com),
on cross-cultural conflicts at the "new" Chrysler.
(04/11/01) More on the DaimlerChrysler merger and subsequent
developments at auto sector archives
and book review.
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"There wouldn't
be a Chrysler today if there wasn't a Daimler with a fatter
purse than we have with Chrysler in Michigan." UAW
President Stephen P. Yokich, at an April 5 news conference.
More on the DaimlerChrysler merger and subsequent developments
at auto sector archives and
book review.
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| .
. . and then there's Tiger . . . Has anyone else noticed
that the newspapers are full of "Tiger this" and "Tiger
that," but nowhere does it mention the metalcaster
who made the clubs that allowed him to win the Masters (US Open,
British Open, PGA Championship, etc. etc. etc.) in the first
place??? |
| "The
big win . . . is in the management of multistep supply chains."
Roger McNamee, head of two investment firms that focus on
technology companies, speaking about e-commerce. Here's the
full quote: "While all the early B-to-B buzz related to purchasing
applications, that is not where the real value lies. Most companies
do a decent job of purchasing , and some can enhance price and
vendor discovery through Net markets. The big win, however,
is in the management of multistep supply chains. Why? Because
the winners in technology are the companies which can get new
products to market (in volume) fastest, thereby capturing the
easy profits and market share." (Reported in The New York
Times, 2/28/01.) (2/30/01) |
| "We
start from scratch as if we are building the first airplane,
just like the Wright brothers." Kelly Johnson, Chief Engineer,
Lockheed, on embarking on the design of the SR-71 Blackbird
in 1958, as recounted in Skunk Works. (Click
here to see review.) (2/28/01) |
| "When
you only have 18 months, you can't fool around much on the inside
of a car!" Retired Ford VP Don Frey, on the program to create
the Mustang, in an interview last week with CastingTrade.com.
(Click here for
full interview.) (2/27/01) |
| "Midwest
values are genetically encoded." Columbus, OH, venture capitalist
Charles Fry. He explained, "We haven't quite gotten past the
notion that profits matter." Quoted in The Wall Street Journal.
(2/22/01) (2/26/01) |
| "He
was the engine who powered stock car racing from a Southern
obsession to a nationwide sport." Kevin Triplett, director
of operations for Nascar, speaking of Dale Earnhardt, Sr., who
died Sunday in a crash during the last lap of the Daytona 500.
(Quoted in The New York Times.) (2/21/01) |
| "It's
not just industry that bears his imprint today but all of modern
life." Robert Kanigel, in The One Best Way, his biography
of Frederick Winslow Taylor, the one-time patternmaker and steel
engineer whose time-study experiments revolutionizing management
theory. (Click here
for review.) (2/20/01) |
| "Hoy!"
Then-candidate Vicente Fox Quesada to fellow contenders
in a televised confrontation over the timing of debates during
the Mexican presidential campaign last year. Spanish for "today"
and signifying the country's impatience for change, it became
the rallying cry for Fox's supporters as they swept him to the
presidency last summer. (Click
here for country survey.) (2/19/01) |
| "After
all, a lot has changed since the Bushies were last in office
eight years ago. The world has moved from a cold-war system,
in which our biggest threats and opportunities flowed from whom
we were divided from and which was symbolized by the Berlin
Wall, to a globalization system, in which our threats and opportunities
now tend to flow from whom we're connected to, and which is
symbolized by the World Wide Web." Columnist Thomas L. Friedman,
writing in The New York Times, December 19, 2000 (2/16/01)
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| "This
isn't just a race - it's a technology war." Andrew Tilin,
writing about Formula One racing in the March, 2001, edition
of Wired magazine: "Today's formula One cars would fit right
in at Comdex. Under a 71-inch-wide, carbon-fiber roof lies a
monster machine that has been designed, stressed, and even test-driven
by computer. Snaking around the chassis, nearly a mile of wiring
serves as the circulatory system for the chips, sensors, dashboard,
and telemetry transmitter. The car's onboard brain is an electronic
black box holding 500,000 lines of code that control the motor
and gearbox and took an estimated 20 man-years to write." (2/15/01)
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| "Encyclopedia
Britannica was a formidable collection of 26 hefty books back
in 1993, with a workforce of thousands of door-to-door salespeople
offering the volumes for sale. Today, Britannica is mainly a
web site. It's an almost unbelievably wonderful Web site, and
it's free for the user." Chicago Tribune technology reporter
Jim Coates, reflecting on how much has changed his he began
his column, "Binary Beat," eight years ago. One of those things
is a Chicago institution that many people think is based in
London: Encyclopedia Britannica. (To see what he's talking about,
go to www.britannica.com.)
(2/14/01) |
| "We've
got to get out of pull marketing." Cummins Engine CEO Tim
Solso, quoted in The Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2001,
on discounting practices that cut into margins. (Read
about Cummins.) (2/13/01) |
| "Almost
everyone is going to lose their job at some point. The real
question is: How long is it going to take to get a new job."
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, quoted in The Industry
Standard. "The new economy promises no security to anybody.
Reich sees a growing division in the labor market between "knowledge
workers" and "providers of attention-giving services." (2/12/01)
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| "The
propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another
is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals."
Adam Smith (2/09/01) |
| "When
everybody in my office is depressed to the point of distraction,
that's usually a trigger we ought to be buying -- and we're
pretty much at that point now." Tech investor Roger McNamee,
who direts Integral Capital Partners and buyout fund Silver
Lake Partners. (Quoted in eCompany Now, December 2000.)
(2/08/01) |
| "The
Internet basically stinks. It's slow, tedious. It's like walking
into the library where all the books are thrown on the floor."
BankOne CEO Jamie Dimon, quoted in The Industry Standard, one
of the leading e-business journals. (2/07/01) |
| "I
really don't understand why someone would take billions of dollars
and give it to people who willfully created their own economic
mess." Treasury Secretary (and former Alcoa CEO) Paul H.
O'Neill, on the 1998 Clinton administration bailout of Russia's
currency crisis. (He could as easily have been speaking of venture
capitalists and dot.com startups . . . .) (Read
O'Neill profile.) (2/06/01) |
| "We're
very pleased with January's results, but as far as I know, I
haven't heard any Champagne corks pop at Ford headquarters."
George Pipas, Ford Motor's director of U.S. market analysis,
quoted in The New York Times, on the strong industry-wide
January vehicle sales reported February 1. (2/05/01) |
