Haqueing Detroit

Umair Haque blogs about how one can re-hack Detroit, riffing off a New York Times article that notes that (surprise surprise) in these straightened times gas guzzling (and profitable) SUVs are losing ground:

Here's perhaps the ultimate industrial era business: Detroit - who seems to be trapped in terminal strategy decay.

Let me cede the floor to you.

How would you rethink Detroit for the 21st century - not just in terms of technology, but, in terms of management, strategy, and advantage?

You can use the principles we've been discussing, bring something new to the table - or perhaps you think the chances of renewal are slim to none

Here's some thoughts then, as requested - its not as if Detroit hasn't been shown how to strategically re-hack itself - Toyota etc have been in the game with Just in Time manufacturing and all those techniques for 40 years, now build cars in the US, and Detroit has crawled all over them. Ditto European car makers, and Ricardo Semmler had some innovative success in Brazil.

So the issue to me is more, given that they already know the answers, why are they unable to execute?

This is not a re-hacking issue, its a "how can we make them drink the water" issue.

Rigid labour conditions are often held as an example, as is the "DNA" - but if you go back to GM's Alfred Sloan, the original DNA was pretty flexible and pragmatic in many ways, and the Japanese companies have dealt with labour successfully all over the world. If I recall, the Japanese were handed a GM factory and turned it round

So is it just a basket case that should be left to wither away?

I suspect the answer - in my experience anyway - is that none of these companies have really had their backs to the wall for a long time, and organisations in that situation accumulate a lot of unnecessary crap in their workflow, like cholesterol in a blood system. This only goes away when they have to jettison bad habits or die. If you've ever done any change management, you'll know that apart from rare examples of forward thinking companies, in mos cases change is minimal without massive, compelling pressure - and that only happens when they face major crises that can actually kill the company in short order (ie the current management could lose their jobs in droves - focusses the mind).

I also wonder if the Detroit mob can't use the US's Chapter 11 laws to help restructure themselves, it may be the only way to exit some of the legacy issues they have built up while still viably trading.