Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Foreword by G. Fredric Bolling
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Introduction
- 1 From automania to maturity – in the main markets at least
- 2 The problems that can be fixed – dealing with noxious emissions, traffic accidents and congestion
- 3 The global resource challenges – energy and global warming
- 4 A global industry and the changing international order
- 5 The supplier industry – the catalyst for the profound changes to come?
- 6 The downstream sales and service sector
- 7 When the labels do not add up
- 8 Choosing a future for the automotive industry
- 9 Time for a model change
- Index
7 - When the labels do not add up
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Foreword by G. Fredric Bolling
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Introduction
- 1 From automania to maturity – in the main markets at least
- 2 The problems that can be fixed – dealing with noxious emissions, traffic accidents and congestion
- 3 The global resource challenges – energy and global warming
- 4 A global industry and the changing international order
- 5 The supplier industry – the catalyst for the profound changes to come?
- 6 The downstream sales and service sector
- 7 When the labels do not add up
- 8 Choosing a future for the automotive industry
- 9 Time for a model change
- Index
Summary
The value destroyers – the rotten financial performance of most vehicle manufacturers
Having painted a picture of an industry which has been filled with mounting troubles for a decade, why was it not more obvious? As Glenn Mercer who heads up the automotive practice with McKinsey in Cleveland puts it, ‘the industry is structurally broken’. Why then were we not always reading screaming headlines about the dangers facing this, one of the most important and largest industrial segments in the world, during the late 1990s and beyond, when things became critical?
There is no good answer. Partly, it was because the world's news agencies and news readers are much more interested in stories about the here and now. Partly, it all happened so slowly; it was like a creeping sickness that was difficult to diagnose precisely because it was progressive. Partly, it was because much of the story was covered early on, in dribs and drabs, making it yesterday's news. People got fed up with endless warnings that the sky was falling – and then the business seeming to go on as usual. It sounded like irrelevant doomsaying at a time of booming IT stocks, bubbling house prices and the supposed new paradigm of economic growth.
There was one business sector closely affected by the industry, however, other than those that were direct suppliers and tied distributors being forever trampled on by the carmakers (and consequently afraid to speak out), which identified many years ago exactly what was going on.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Time for a Model ChangeRe-engineering the Global Automotive Industry, pp. 211 - 244Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004