In a May 15th, 2000 Business Week article Harold Kutner was referred to as an "old school purchasing guy with a reputation for playing hardball with suppliers."
Amongst his heralded "accomplishments" at the time was the fact that he was the driving "force behind the auto industry's first e-marketplace for car makers and parts suppliers" (Covisint comes to mind here).
Kutner's vision of course involved bringing together Ford, Daimler
Chrysler, Renault and Nissan with the intention of having the auto
makers "sharing product-development data with suppliers, selling parts
online, and allowing car buyers to get custom-built vehicles delivered
in days rather than months."
The exclamation point at the end of this collaborative dissertation
was an ominous warning to suppliers that "if they don't realize that
there is a transformation going on, they won't survive!"
In a twist of reverse irony that was driven home during the August 11th PI Window on Business broadcast "Intersecting Ideals: Why GM's Supply Chain is in a State of Ruin," it is not the supply network that has collapsed under the weight of
what can only be described as arrogant proclamations of a new supply
world order. It is in fact the somewhat monolithic giants, and the
North American auto industry as a whole, which deemed itself impervious
to such concepts as sustainable supplier profitability and mutually
beneficial collaboration that has failed to survive - at least not as
the once high flying icons of the business world.
The lesson of course is simply this . . . strategies and the
corresponding technologies upon which they are built cannot be
sustained in the absence of a collaborative process that seeks to
engage key stakeholders both within and external to an enterprise to
identify and ultimately work towards a collective best-result outcome.
The question is simply this, will the new GM and other North
American auto makers learn from their past mistakes, and align its
attitudes and practices with the real transformation that is taking
place in a truly globalized market?
Only time will tell if these organizations, as well as those from
industries within both the private and public sectors, will actually
learn from their mistakes and therefore avoid repeating them.
Subscribe to Jon's articles
Referral Strategies
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
