After losing share to imports, General Motors under then CEO Smith launched a revolutionary plan--the Saturn car accompanied with breakthrough ideas; no haggle pricing, no-work-rules union environment, singular dedicated production facility, promises of evolutionary design, friendly dealer customer service, and a cult-like individuality. It was loved by the public: this small-car business plan was a good idea! But there are a million good ideas in the world. What separates good ideas from meaningful results is the attention to execution, and in this specific case within the mind-boggling bureaucracy and old-think atmosphere of GM, a ferverent dedication to continued isolation. GM had a good idea, and-not unexpected-lousy execution (more on this on page 2). Tata has a great idea in the launch of it's $2500 Tata-nano. I'm willing to bet that the clear thinking Tata company will radically outperform GM's execution; they'll stick to their plan, improve it incrementally as is appropriate, and be highly successful.
Instead of improving the Saturn plan with continued evolutionary changes, the big car guys found a way to make it die and thereby prove that the idea was wrong in the first place. There was no design evolution (nothing changed in the design for years), the product line was corrupted by Opel cars, individuality was lost, management and unions allowed the introduction of the work rules that strangle efficiency and creativity: the big car guys won. Obviously the old-think GM management thwarted this apparently good idea, and slowly starved it to death. Well, maybe they won the battle, but in the process GM was losing the war. Had they stuck with the original plan and ferverently pursued it, as a silo strategy within their huge bureaucracy, maybe, just maybe, Saturn would been a big deal during the recent $4/gallon gasoline days and be thriving somewhat even today. Execution, implementation, isolation of a good idea to keep it away from other internal corporate pressures; these are key elements of success.
Comments