The Management Mythbuster

U.S. auto industry - is there another sector that has got it so spectularly wrong?

Tax payers now own two-thirds of the U.S. auto industry and are likely to do so for some time to come - so what have we got for our money?  The  good news is the three big companies (Ford is the supposed star but has little to boast about really) are consistent performers; unfortunately its been consistently awful.  Look at the U.S. market share numbers for the large autos:

GM  -  1999:  29.6%; 2008: 22.3%

Ford - 1999:  24.2%; 2008: 15%  (and they are supposed to be the star!)

Chrysler - 1999: 15.6%; 2008: 11%

Toyota - 1999: 8.8%; 2008: 16.8%

Honda - 1999: 6.4% 2008: 10.8%

Not only have they lost share but combined revenues of the big three are down from $407 billion to $342 billion.  GM takes the top prize and it was interesting to read former auto-czar Steve Ratner describe GM's once vaunted finance function in Fortune magazine this way:

"Everyone knew Detroit's reputation for insular, slow-moving cultures. Even by that low standard, I was shocked by the stunningly poor management that we found, particularly at GM, where we encountered, among other things, perhaps the weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a major company."

Both former-CEO Rick Wagoner and current-CEO Fritz Henderson are graduates of GM Finance - inspires one with confidence doesn't it.  

How sad that this should happen to an industry that largely defined America's rise to become the world's richest nation.

Customer service - why is it usually form over substance?

Customer service has become an all consuming mantra.  Any self respecting organization must emphasize its focus (often using adjectives like insane, passionate and dedicated) on customers, yet the reality is that most customer service is superficial. It consists of mechanical actions that lack genuine commitment and which are rarely backed by any authority to actually do something meaningful. Consider the following examples:       

1 "Can I help you sir?"  This is not bad in of itself but all too often I am asked this questions five times within three minutes of entering a store.  First, I am quite capable of asking for help if I need it so please just leave me alone. And second, if I do ask for your help, don't tell me that "Everything we have is on display" or "I'm sorry that's not my department."  Even worse is when the answer is "I don't know."  I received a call this morning from Bank of America who are theoretically handling my mortgage refinancing.  I have got this call every week for the past eleven weeks and every week it goes like this: a very polite person inquires if they can help me in anyway; I ask, "Can you tell me when the process will be complete?" they say, "I don't know sir, but I am sure it won't be long." Well thanks a bloody lot!

2. "Did you find everything you need?"  This is a retail favorite and most of the time I robotically answer with a dismissive "Yes." However once in a while I answer, "No." Typically this produces a reaction ranging from shock to bewilderment accompanied by absolutely no idea as to what to say next. If you can't do anything about it - don't ask.

3. "Excuse me sir"  This is usually uttered by the check-in clerk at a hotel.  I am standing in front of them trying to get my room key when the phone rings.  Suddenly I become invisible and the "answer every call on or before the second ring" mantra kicks in.  I then stand patiently as some idiot on the 8th floor asks for detailed reviews of fifteen local steak houses.

4. "How was your meal?" I don't mind getting this question once, but four times in eight minutes is bit much, particularly when it interrupts a conversation.  Why can't restaurant managers get it in their thick heads that when I am talking to my wife, children or a business associate it is not alright to interrupt?

If you want to serve me - just deliver what is promised and get the hell out of my way -  so there!

English bigger than Mandarin

According to latest estimates there are now 1.6 billion people who can speak English either as their first or second language (more than double the number of just ten years ago). By comparison, Mandarin is at around a billion.  There are now more people who can speak English in China than there are in the U.S and more in India than in U.S. and U.K. combined.

I believe the numbers, in my travels to over 30 countries this year, English has been everywhere.  Only a few countries (Japan, Korea, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, Colombia and Chile) offered simultaneous translation of my speeches and nowhere were more than a third of the audience using it.  In Thailand 400 people came and no translation was offered. Twenty years ago on my first visit I was accompanied by a translator to every meeting.

It is estimated that more than 2 billion people are learning English worldwide meaning  that in ten years time it is likely that more than half the world's population will struggling to comprehend why "i" comes before "e" except after "c'" (except of course for words like foreign, species, seize, weird - oh never mind).

We Brits may have lost our empire but our language rules!

What the critics say...Half the World Away!

Rather like The Beatles, my new book Half the World Away was rejected by many before true talent was spotted (thank you Countinghouse press!). Like all aspiring authors I have assembled a sizable collection of rejection letters. 

Unlike my fellow Brits who wallow in failure and glory in disappointment, I have adopted my American persona of viewing all setbacks as mere learning experiences or teachable moments and have turned rejection into marketing capital.  So here are selected comments, reproduced verbatim from my considerable stack of rejection letters. Hopefully will lead to one or more of these publishers to be compared to Dick Rowe of Decca Records who was the most famous rejecter of the Fab Four.

“I truly had a fantastic time reading this - David’s wit and humor are second to none.”

“brims with energy …good hearted humor”

“a funny intelligent writer”

“Witty and fun to read”

“a highly entertaining read”

“Fun and fresh”

You can buy your personally signed copies at sonaxbooks.com and also help kiva.org a great charity doing outstanding work around the world.

Half The World Away - what the critics will be saying!

“What do a twelve step program for sex addicts, getting naked at a Schvitz, a convention of plastic surgeons, using a minivan as a bobsled, and George III have in common? Yup – They’re all Half the World Away.”

“Half the World Away is exposes of all that is normal in America.”

“Forget Harry Potter and The DaVinci Code, Half the World Away, sets a new benchmark for modern literature.”

“Bill Bryson with attitude and a bald patch”

“Half the World Away does for Anglo-American relations what Bill Gates did to the typewriter.”

“The British Are Coming – can we please stop them?” 

“Axson wrote Half the World Away? Pity he didn’t stay there!”

Chaptography part 4...Axson has left the building

Both Sides Now is a superb song and I admit Joni Mitchell has grown on me over the years. There is also a lovely version by Clannad and Paul Young.

Cold Hard Bitch is by a band called Jet, the best group to emerge from Australia since AC/DC.

Eleanor Put Your Boots On is a track from the album You Could Have It So Much Better by Franz Ferdinand and is one of three songs containing my daughter’s name that I love. The other two are, Lady Eleanor by Lindisfarne and Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles.

Money for Nothing by Dire Straits, with vocal contributions from Sting, seemed to define MTV in the 1980’s―British of course.

Wild Thing by The Troggs is a great rock anthem from 1966. Sung by the “other Presley” Troggs front man, Reg!

Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy. I prefer The Boys Are Back in Town but this song still rocks.

London Calling. Forget the Sex Pistols, The Clash were the best British punk rock band, bar none.

White Wedding. Billy Idol, former lead singer with the punk group Generation X, made it big in America as a solo artist.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want was the perfectly ironic title for a chapter about Las Vegas. I love the Stones and this is my favourite Mick and Keith composition.

Texas by Chris Rea has a great driving beat, perfect to accompany a long cruise across the Lone Star state.

Merry Christmas Everybody is the best Christmas song ever. Images of Noddy Holder and Dave Hill still make me smile at the memory.

Wake Me Up When September Ends is from Green Day’s album, American Idiot, which was the original title of this book. It’s the most melodic song on an excellent album.

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For comes from the U2 album The Joshua Tree that elevated the group to superstar status. Listening to this track it’s easy to hear why.

Chaptography part 3...rock on

Getting into the meat of it now and the music just keeps on coming...

Drive by The Cars will be forever linked in my mind with Live Aid, when it was used to accompany film clips of starving children in Africa. The concert took place two weeks before my wedding.

Two Pints of Lager and a Packet Of Crisps a classic from 1980 by the British group Splodgenessabounds, the best name for a group―ever. The title offers a wry look at my standard diet in my pre-American days.

Name of the Game is an Abba song, however I recommend the version done by a group few have heard of, called Any Trouble.  I like it for two reasons: first, it’s a good song; and second I went to school with three members of the band. As an aside my wife slept in the lead guitarists’ bed as an eleven year-old. By way of explanation, he was not there at the time; his sister was one of her school friends.

Jerusalem is close to being an alternate British national anthem. This version by Vangelis comes from the soundtrack of the Oscar winning film Chariots of Fire.

Addicted to Love by Robert Palmer was accompanied by a video that symbolized MTV at its best.

On The Border by The Eagles. You cannot write a book about living in America without an Eagles track. So enjoy.

It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me. I have always thought of Billy Joel as America’s Elton John and when this song came out it confirmed it for me.  At the time he was also married to Christie Brinkley … how did he ever lose her? Silly man.

New Religion by Duran Duran. I remember taking my wife who was then my girlfriend to see Duran Duran at the height of their fame in the early-eighties. I was surrounded by thousands of screaming girls who all seemed to be experiencing intense sexual pleasure at the same time; probably the closest I have come to experiencing Beatlemania.

Chaptography part 2...turning up the volume

Half The World Away or HTWA to those in the know was written over sixteen years and rejected by more than 30 publishers! I think The Beatles were rejected by about the same number of record labels so that must be a good omen. Here are some more classic chapter titles - try and guess the subject matter - its not that hard!

Calling America by ELO is a guilty pleasure -- you're not supposed to admit to liking ELO. Their 1976 song Livin’ Thing topped a UK magazine poll in 2006 as the number 1 “guilty pleasure” as in the un-cool record it’s okay to love. Well no one has ever accused me of being cool.    

Main Street is classic American rock and no one personifies that genre better than Bob Seger. His lyrics accurately describe the typical Midwest town–my home for last nineteen years.    

Davy’s on the Road Again by Manfred Mann is all about my working life.    

Sweet Child of Mine is the definitive Guns n’ Roses song; it should really be Sweet Children of Mine since I have two of them.    

Eight Days a Week by The Beatles. Written by Paul McCartney based on one of Ringo’s absurd comments, think also of A Hard Days Night. The Fab Four were my first musical love as I apparently used to sing She Loves You while sitting in my high chair, as a three year-old back in ’64.    

I’m Going Home is 11 minutes 40 seconds of over the top R’n’B by Ten Years After and their lead guitarist, Alvin Lee—Brits who rocked at Woodstock.    

You’re so Vain could be the theme song for modern America. Whether Carly Simon wrote this about Warren Beatty remains unknown, but it accurately describes the cult of personality that pervades America.

I Can’t Stand the Rain is Tina at her best. Surely the sexiest 40, 50 and 60 year-old ever? Those legs set atop the towering stilettos…

My new book is on the presses! Witty, poignant, uplifting - it's none of these!

My new book, Half the World Away is rolling off the presses as I type these words - its sure to be a blockbuster! Dan Brown won't know what's hit him. Not only is it supposed to be funny, its also got a killer soundtrack - every chapter title is a classic.  So here is the first part of the chaptography - stay tuned for more ...

First the book’s title, Half the World Away is a lovely song by Oasis one of the top British bands of the nineties. Led by the erratic Gallagher brothers, Oasis emerged from Manchester not twenty miles from where I grew up and I shared a Concorde flight with them back in the mid-nineties.    

In the Beginning is the first track from the Moody Blues 1969 album On Threshold of a Dream. The album reached number one in the UK and number twenty in the U.S. The Moody Blues were the first band I ever saw live in Stafford, England and remain a favourite.  A sound start I think.    

Celluloid Heroes is a great Kinks track, at 7 minutes 21 seconds it is long by Kinks standards. The story Ray Davies tells captures the sadness that lies just below the surface in LA.

California Girls by the Beach Boys is an obvious choice. Does any group or song better capture the image of Southern California?

San Francisco by Scott McKenzie is another no-brainer. The song represents the time when San Francisco acquired its reputation as one of the most tolerant and laid back cities in the world. Much has changed but this unique city still retains some elements of that calm.

Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me is one of Elton John’s classics.  A sad song, sung beautifully.

Leaving New York by REM is from the group’s 2004 album Around the Sun. The title suggests my preferred state while in the Big Apple--leaving!

Coming next ELO, Bob Seger, Guns 'n Roses and much much more...

Dell & Perot--too little too late?

So Dell is buying Perot systems for $3.9 billion.  They are only eight years behind IBM's purchase of PWC and one year after HP bought EDS.  When your core business becomes a commodity the standard strategy is to move into services - higher margins but a very different management model.  Can Dell make the transition?  It will be a challenge as they are far more a single product group company than either IBM or HP were.  As Vinnie Mirchandani comments in his deal architect blog "At best Perot will allow Dell to gain a toehold in verticals Perot is good at. At worst, it will distract Dell from the big services chain optimization opportunity."  Perot was never a player at the EDS, Accenture or IBM level so Dell is going to have to drive real organic growth in Perot's business if it is to drive any real scale or synergy. 

It is interesting to compare Dell with Apple. Who was the favorite for glory back in 1997 when Dell was "THE" company and Apple (sans Jobs) was fading fast?