stringer bell wrote:
an mba wrote:
At what point do you become completely drunk on the Kool-Aid?
This happens in every industry:
Let's say, and this may be true, that no GM employee ever bought a Japanese car. At what point do they lose track of how far the Japanese car manufacturers have pulled ahead? I'm sure there still are GM people who blame the government, the unions, etc. for all their problems, but as a run of the mill car buyer who talks to his mechanic, I buy Japanese cars because I know the long-term quality is much, much better. Obviously, tens of millions of other Americans feel the same way, so GM can only sell cars by wrapping themselves in the flag. But by doing that, they fall further behind on quality.
Groupthink is dangerous. Mandating groupthink is scary.
GM's research and development department buys dozens of cars from GM's competitors. There's a lot of reverse engineering and research. However, it makes no sense for a guy making widgets on GM's assembly line to drive a Toyota. What would him driving a Corolla do to benefit GM?
And how would that widget-maker -who GM management considers disposable, doesn't give a flying rat's ass about personally and would fire in an eyeblink without an iota of remorse if it benefited their bottom line- be doing anything for himself by driving a GM?