Imagine… An open source engine design. One that the best academics, engineers and business minds can consider collectively… kind of like… Linux.
Imagine that it is competing with a powerhouse in engine and “reference” designs… who has been licensing their designs to complements in the industry and making a MINT from it. This company has created hybrid, LNG, Gas, Electric designs for motorcycles, cars, trucks and buses.
Imagine a company that makes engines, advanced electronic components as well as drive-by-wire and braking systems. Imagine if they were components, with clear interoperable interfaces (Intel, Qualcomm, Rambus, Nvidia)
Imagine a design engineering and product marketing firm that did nothing but find the best way to package and market standardized engines, electronic components and car bodies while adding some of their own user experience differentiation (HP, Dell, Asus).
Imagine a manufacturing EXPERT (flextronics) that did NOTHING but manufacture cars more efficiently than anyone else! (OK, Toyota and Honda can probably handle this).
Imagine a network of retailers who had show rooms and who focused on matching buyers with cars, regardless of brand. Given the actual SIZE of cars, maybe a sales consultant could help you “build to order” any car across any number of brands using rich internet application displaying your car on a 50 inch plasma (alot cheaper than hogging up the showroom floor with expensive inventory… test drives can be scheduled though). (Amazon, Best Buy, Frys).
I think part of what makes the car companies so UN-nimble is the integrated industry structure. Independent companies set up with a functional design could lower barriers to entry, create a diverse ecosystem, and bring about real competition.
So if the government is plotting a bankruptcy that optimizes the pennies on the dollar that creditors will get, maybe they could spend ten minutes or so thinking about how the industry could re-emerge with a more competitive industry structure.
1 response so far ↓
Jim // December 10, 2008 at 3:00 am
Jon,
Here is my radical idea for the auto industry in the US.
The problem that the so called Big Three have is one of brand. Their cars are hopelessly uncool–their brand is soiled.
Here is the solution:
GM rebrands half of its cars as Saabs–making them actually look like Saabs. Ford does the same with Volvo and Chrysler merges with Nissan/Renault at some sort of firesale.
Ford and GM should sell their european cars in the US (Opel and Vauxhaul in GMs case).
The truck/SUV divisions of of these companies should use their parent brand (e.g. GM, Ford, Jeep in Nissan/Renault’s).
Chevy, Pontiac, Buick, Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Mercury, Lincoln, Dodge, Plymouth are from a different era. They make the cars seem cheap having the same car with different brands. They’ve been soiled beyond repair.
The final step would be to move the corporate headquarters to California and declare themselves reborn firing anyone who has ever questioned global warming.