A Broken Place: The Spectacular Failure Of The Startup That Was Going To Change The World

With almost $1 billion in funding and ambitions to replace petroleum-based cars with a network of cheap electrics, Shai Agassi’s Better Place was remarkable even by the standards of world-changing startups. So was its epic failure. A 21st-century cautionary tale.

Hyundai’s Capabilities Play

The Korean automaker’s explosive growth in the last few years—achieved through better quality, stylish design, and clever marketing—has made it a dynamic player in the U.S. auto industry.

Lawrence Burns

The energy challenges that the world faces aren’t going to be solved by focusing on energy alone. To solve these challenges, we must focus more broadly on how people live their everyday lives and what they find desirable, along with how people and companies make money.

Until you change consumer behavior and get manufacturers and suppliers to align with a new set of alternatives, you’re not … [ Read more ]

How General Motors Lost Market Focus – And Its Way

When does having too many brands and too many variations of those brands create a perilous situation? The answer is that when you are an American icon, once thought too big to fail, and that never ever thought it should modify, let alone re-consider trimming, its portfolio of offerings. On the verge, General Motors illustrates why building an offering for every market segment may make … [ Read more ]

The Machine That Changed the World : The Story of Lean Production

When The Machine That Changed the World was first published in 1990, Toyota was half the size of General Motors. Today Toyota is passing GM as the world’s largest auto maker and is the most consistently successful global enterprise of the past fifty years. This management classic was the first book to reveal Toyota’s lean production system that is the basis for its enduring success.

Now … [ Read more ]

VW in China: Running the Olympic Marathon

Will Volkswagen’s “Olympic” program help it reassert its advantage in China?

Getting to Win-Win: How Toyota Creates and Sustains Best-Practice Supplier Relationships

Across the automotive industry and around the globe, Toyota ranks as suppliers’ preferred OEM-the one with which they would most like to do more business. Yet Toyota is also known to be extremely demanding of its suppliers and rigorous in its insistence on openness and highly disciplined processes. The authors outline the principles and practices that Toyota employs to win its suppliers’ extraordinary performance-and loyalty. … [ Read more ]

Carlos Ghosn

Nissan’s multicultural boss talks about Japanese business culture, leadership and the perils and opportunities of corporate stardom.

Carlos Ghosn

In 2000, Nissan Motor announced its biggest loss ever. A year later, it reported the largest net profit in its history. The turnaround was led by Carlos Ghosn, one of the few foreign executives ever to head a Japanese company. In this interview, he discusses his first year at Nissan.

Skoda Leaps to Market

A Communist car monopoly turned Volkswagen subsidiary is now becoming an entrepreneurial global enterprise.