Time for a Model Change: Re-engineering the Global Automotive Industry

Description

The automotive industry ranks among the most significant business phenomena of the 20th century and remains vitally important today, accounting for almost 11 per cent of the GDP of North America, Europe and Japan and one in nine jobs. In economic and social terms alike, its products have had a fundamental impact on modern society - for better and worse. Yet the industry has found it hard to adjust to recent challenges and is no longer much valued by the capital markets. It is riven with internal contradictions that inhibit reform, and faces a stark choice between years of strife or radical change. This book is a wake-up call for those who work in the automotive business. It highlights the challenges and opportunities that exist for managers, legislators, financial institutions and potential industry entrants. Most of all, it gives us all cause to reflect on the value of our mobility, today and tomorrow.

Graeme P. Maxton is Programme Director, Economist Conferences, Contributing Editor, Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and a Director of autoPOLIS Strategy Consultants. He contributes regularly to a variety of Economist Newspaper Group publications and is author of the EIU's World Car Forecasts, The Emerging Markets of Asia-Pacific and Asia-Pacific: after the Crisis. He is also co-author (with John Wormald) of the best-selling Driving Over a Cliff? Business Lessons from the World's Car Industry, 1994. John Wormald is a Director of autoPOLIS Strategy Consultants and works throughout the automotive industry. He regularly contributes to the business and automotive press and is the co-author (with Graeme P. Maxton) of the best-selling Driving Over a Cliff? Business Lessons from the World's Car Industry, 1994.

'... a stimulating and thought-provoking read, especially for an industry insider.' John McCormack, Vice-President European Aftermarket, Federal-Mogul 'A timely and important book. The authors have produced both a powerful diagnosis and an imaginative blueprint for reform. The industry and everyone who depends on it would do well to take notice.' Sir Geoffrey Owen, former editor of the Financial Times, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Management at the London School of Economics 'Wormald and Maxton provide an iconoclastic analysis of the industry that is provocative, timely, and well-researched. The warnings they give to the leaders of this industry and the politicians seeking to regulate it need to be taken seriously.' Lee Branstetter, Associate Professor of Business, Columbia Business School, New York 'The authors have set out to persuade the industry that it needs to change its structure and stop making so many models. They raise important questions for motor executives and offer a mass of evidence in support of their case.' Financial Times