At the risk of writing a diatribe the recent elections seem to have the automotive industry changing its tune faster than you can say fiscal responsibility.
At the manufacturer level we have been hearing how the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is underfunded, and safety is the utmost right behind the environmental concerns. Just a few days after the elections with the swing in Congress back to Republicans industry officials are speculating that safety initiatives and gas mileage initiatives would fail under Republican leadership.
Now don’t get me wrong, the current plan to fund NHTSA takes them from a poorly managed and underfunded agency to having more power and money than many third-world countries — and that is just ridiculous. It fails to solve the issue of what NHTSA and Toyota knew, and when, concerning their throttle problems, for example. It will surely give NHTSA the money to destroy a manufacturer or at least manipulate them with no real due process. On the other hand it is clear that NHTSA is broken and needs to be repaired in useful ways that identify, research and resolve issues with manufacturers of vehicles and safety related parts.
If Congress, under new management, decides to avoid the issue because it’s not popular with some of its constituents, then we can count on our continued pendulum-swinging political environment and public that is too opinion paralyzed to find sensible compromises that return the US to the creative, rich environment that offers anyone willing to work hard a chance to succeed. The fact is that most folks in our country live somewhere in the middle or just a touch left or right of center on their political views. With candidates so polarized it’s pretty clear to see why elections hinge on a few percentage points. It also seems clear that Americans are looking for a different type of policy maker who listens to them and respects their views. With the apparent vacuum for that type of leadership it appears that we are in the position of choosing leaders who represent at least, part of our views.
I might be making it sound like real leadership starts somewhere in Washington, but it doesn’t. Bringing it home to our little corner of the world I am not sure that we are any different than the politicians we elect. Instead of working together we prefer to point fingers at each other without even considering that there are things we could do in our own house.
For decades, the reason we could get anything done rests solidly on the egos masquerading as independence and trade secrets. This is how most of us got into this business to begin with. Most of us started our businesses because we thought we could do it better than somebody else. We compete based on that belief. There is nothing wrong with that. The problems start when we are unable as independents to recognize that in some things we would be better united. There are many examples of groups of independent businesses working together in our industry — trade associations, buying groups, etc. But even then we see internal power struggles and often an inability to work with others, resulting in this continued appearance to our customers that we are basically insane.
In my travels and relationships in the industry it seems like there may be an opportunity for a new level of cooperation that would benefit the automotive industry as a whole. The challenge is learning to trust people that we have not in the past. What you have to ask yourself is, “What does it do for my business and my industry to change my view?”
At the risk of writing a diatribe the recent elections seem to have the automotive industry changing its tune faster than you can say fiscal responsibility.
At the manufacturer level we have been hearing how the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is underfunded, and safety is the utmost right behind the environmental concerns. Just a few days after the elections with the swing in Congress back to Republicans industry officials are speculating that safety initiatives and gas mileage initiatives would fail under Republican leadership.
Now don’t get me wrong, the current plan to fund NHTSA takes them from a poorly managed and underfunded agency to having more power and money than many third-world countries — and that is just ridiculous. It fails to solve the issue of what NHTSA and Toyota knew, and when, concerning their throttle problems, for example. It will surely give NHTSA the money to destroy a manufacturer or at least manipulate them with no real due process. On the other hand it is clear that NHTSA is broken and needs to be repaired in useful ways that identify, research and resolve issues with manufacturers of vehicles and safety related parts.
If Congress, under new management, decides to avoid the issue because it’s not popular with some of its constituents, then we can count on our continued pendulum-swinging political environment and public that is too opinion paralyzed to find sensible compromises that return the US to the creative, rich environment that offers anyone willing to work hard a chance to succeed. The fact is that most folks in our country live somewhere in the middle or just a touch left or right of center on their political views. With candidates so polarized it’s pretty clear to see why elections hinge on a few percentage points. It also seems clear that Americans are looking for a different type of policy maker who listens to them and respects their views. With the apparent vacuum for that type of leadership it appears that we are in the position of choosing leaders who represent at least, part of our views.
I might be making it sound like real leadership starts somewhere in Washington, but it doesn’t. Bringing it home to our little corner of the world I am not sure that we are any different than the politicians we elect. Instead of working together we prefer to point fingers at each other without even considering that there are things we could do in our own house.
For decades, the reason we could get anything done rests solidly on the egos masquerading as independence and trade secrets. This is how most of us got into this business to begin with. Most of us started our businesses because we thought we could do it better than somebody else. We compete based on that belief. There is nothing wrong with that. The problems start when we are unable as independents to recognize that in some things we would be better united. There are many examples of groups of independent businesses working together in our industry — trade associations, buying groups, etc. But even then we see internal power struggles and often an inability to work with others, resulting in this continued appearance to our customers that we are basically insane.
In my travels and relationships in the industry it seems like there may be an opportunity for a new level of cooperation that would benefit the automotive industry as a whole. The challenge is learning to trust people that we have not in the past. What you have to ask yourself is, “What does it do for my business and my industry to change my view?”
