A tendency toward groupthink has been a chronic problem in the American automobile industry since the mid-50s. This was a key driver of the domestic automakers’ dramatic decline from the late-60s onward. More recently, foreign […]
“An industrial company that sees its primary focus as making money rather than making good products, is not going to make good products. ‘Their obligation is 100% to their shareholders’ is not a law of […]
“Grosse Pointe myopians” is pejorative term that automotive journalist Brock Yates (2018) gave to the management class of domestic automakers in a review he wrote in 1968. That essay was subsequently expanded into a book, […]
“I think Elon is tired. He’s worn out. He’s obviously got some emotional problems. He’s self medicating. He has shown some disturbing signs of being somewhat volatile and unstable. I think the right solution for […]
“This is no longer an innovation problem, this is an execution at scale problem — unless Tesla wants to be a niche innovator chasing profitability and sucking up cash. They need to become experts at […]
“It’s not just a plague; it’s standard operating procedure, something that permeates car company marketing enclaves all over the world. I am convinced that there is a secret automotive marketing boot camp buried underground somewhere (perhaps […]
Keith Crain is the closest thing the American auto industry has to a minister of groupthink, so it is worth noting when the editor-in-chief of Automotive News furrows his brow. In a late-December column he criticized […]
(EXPANDED ON 8/11/2022) I would rank David Halberstam’s The Reckoning as one of the top automotive histories of the last 50 years. The book was published in 1986 but still provides one of the most […]
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