John McElroy writes that GM's business model of regionalism worked well when the automotive business was larger protected prior to the internationalization of trade in 1980s. This ceased to be efficient when globalisation and the economies of scale stemming from it came into effect. McElroy writes:
But the strategy fell apart, at least for GM, when automotive trade became really big on a global basis.Until then, GM's portfolio of brands gave it the greatest economies of scale of any automaker.
But when companies like Toyota and Honda were able to expand their sales to many markets in the world, they were able to offset GM's advantage. They could make Corollas and Civics in huge numbers and sell them everywhere.
That isn't really a brand issue though, it is more that GM was fraying its capital investments into too many platforms. The much touted Zeta platform, for instance, which Holden developed for GM appears to only have an application in the Chevrolet Camaro outside of the Holden Commodore range and its international variants.
McElroy argues that too many brands mean that there is too much fighting for both development, engineering and marketing, despite the badge swapping that goes on amongst the GM makes;
Toyota can pour all of its development and marketing money into two brands (I'm ignoring Scion for the moment since it only exists in the U.S. market). Every year the company comes out with about four new or significantly refreshed Toyotas and about three new Lexus models. How can a Chevrolet or a Cadillac compete when they each come out with maybe one new model a year?
McElroy's argument is that GM should rationalize its operations down to Chevrolet and Cadillac with the two sharing platforms much in the way Toyota and Lexus do. Ford faces similar difficulties, and ironically McElroy suggests this poses problems for European manufacturers too;
That's why GM will likely kill off HUMMER, and why Pontiac and Buick could end up on the endangered species list. It's why Ford will kill Mercury and sell Volvo. And it makes me wonder how long VW will be able to maintain such a large portfolio
Volkswagon includes Audi, Seat, Skoda, Lamborghini, Bentley and Bugatti. Not long after this article
came the rumor that GM was considering killing off a brand, though it was speculation with GMC and Pontiac being the two main suspects. Which was amusing as it is the equivalent of linkbait on the automotive boards as poster after poster and comment after comment laid out each person"s view of the ultimate 'brand' lineup from GM. The irony being that automotive forum boards are less about cars and more about marketing with everyone being an expert on brand marketing.
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
