Big 3 Meltdown

[Dave Guerra]

How did we get into this mess? Should Detroit have seen this coming? What is your position on the crisis at General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler? Should Congress bail them out?

[Gregg Stocker]

In today’s WSJ, there is a story about how GM is “scrambling” to get a plan together for congress. What this means to me is that they didn’t have a plan before now and expected to get a handout from the government (aka, the taxpayers) without effort. How can they possibly expect to compete with Toyota and Honda by approaching business in the same old way - and without a plan, that's exactly what will happen.

As you know Dave, I am a native Detroiter and have several friends and relatives in the auto industry, but I’m still not sure I support a bailout of an industry plagued with mismanagement and arrogance. The lack of responsibility the Detroit 3 executives have shown over the years to their employees, shareholders, and the country is appalling. Unless the cultures at these companies shifts toward a focus on continual improvement of product offering, quality, productivity, and costs, nothing will change (except, of course, that Detroit will lose its largest industry and, along with it, its identity).

I have posted my thoughts in much more detail on my blog (http://corporatedeathspiral.blogspot.com).

[Richard Davis]

I wonder had the big three not spent millions lobbying against fuel efficiency and other proposed regulations over the years but had invested that money in innovation and meeting those challenges whether they would be where they are today? Note also that congress bought into the lobbyists arguments and failed to mandate those higher standards.

In the Business Week article you posted on December 3rd, it notes that GM wants to spend some of their bail-out money on marketing - more TV spots for vehicles people clearly don't want to buy, where's the sense in that? It's not the advertising industry that's looking for the bailout, it's the auto industry, so any money handed over must be invested in the rapid innovation of efficient products and processes, not simply handed over to the ad agencies and media companies.