Titbits on Ford and Pixar-Disney

Ford and Big-Three Automakers

As a consumer, I had argued that Big-Three US Automakers would lose to the Japanese - Honda, Toyota, and even Nissan have become great marketing machines and have won consumers' hearts with their quality, reliability and price

Japanese automakers have handled 4Ps of marketing in a nearly-perfect manner over the last two decades (even Hyundai has done a superb job lately). And no-one can argue Japanese lead the manufacturing (and their famous "lean production"). The combination makes them the leaders

This week when I read the restructuring plans of Ford, my heart sank. The moment I had been unknowingly waiting for has probably arrived - that was it!

I did a quick google search to look for the reasons the industry watchers were claiming for this debacle, found a couple of them:

• Healthcare plans promised to the Unions decades ago, pensions now run into Billions of $$s
• Innovation has been slow whereas Japanese have launched great products at a faster pace (probably Keiretsu is the reason)
• Perception of reliability and quality

References:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/02/AR2005120201377.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/autos/bigthree.html

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2005/04/27/2003252221

How has Chrysler survived so far?

They changed themselves and created "American Keiretsu". They are still a long way from the goals but they are on the right track at the least

References:

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=96403

http://www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=53022

Pixar-Disney

Finally Pixar reached an acquisition agreement with Disney making Steve Jobs the largest shareholder of Disney, funny! The speculations fall into 2 categories:

• one category adds to the hype of the acquisition
• another is about the growing suspicion of any relevant changes that this deal may bring

Bob Iger has done a great job to give the authority to some of the leading innovators from Pixar - hoping to bring new ideas. But the war is far from over and that is to convince his senior management team - and down the chain - that these changes are the only means for the company's survival. And this is no easy thing. Afterall, how many successful acquisitions can we count?

My personal opinion is that Disney management team needs an overhaul - lay down the rules and whoever does not follow gets a chance before he is thrown out. One good example would set the stage for the change - people would realize that this is being taken seriously

One good article covering the story:

http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=41181

I love both Steve Jobs and Disney

And hence I just hope Bob accomplishes his task successfully

I admire Steve Jobs - I love his creativity. I love Macs for their creative designs and fell in love with iPod when I used it. Incidentally I have "never" owned an apple gear. I was fascinated by Steve when I first realized Pixar was his creation - and that was 3 years back

As a kid, I had always liked Disney creations - they had been fantastic and they can turn me into a kid again even now