Tom Friedman of The New York Times isn't finished beating up the Detroit auto companies. In his Dec. 9 column, "While Detroit Slept," he likens the idea of a Detroit bailout to pouring billions of dollars into saving the CD music business at the advent of the iPod and iTunes.
His argument centers around the need to innovate instead of insulate.
To illustrate his point, Friedman writes about Better Place, an electric car company start-up based in Palo Alto, Calif.
Better Place's idea is to offer an electric car infrastructure that includes charging spots, battery switching stations and software that automates it.
"Founded in October 2007 with $200 million in venture funding, Better Place builds electric vehicle networks powered by renewable energy," according to a Better Place press release. "The company is currently working with partners to build electric vehicle infrastructure in Israel, Denmark, Australia and the United States."
If fortune favors the bold, then Better Place may well be a recipient. Their vision is nothing less than audacious.
"Better Place is committed to delivering transportation as a sustainable service by eradicating the need for oil as a fuel source and migrating toward renewable energy," according to the Better Place web site. "By leveraging energy from resources such as wind, solar and other carbon free sources, transportation becomes part of a self-reliant infrastructure that not only reduces the financial impact of our oil addiction, but also improves and protects our environment and our health."
When did you ever hear a CEO of the Big Three auto companies seize the high ground and inspire us with a vision like that?
Instead, the current thinking from G.M. has been more like staying in the same old place rather than taking us to a better one.
"Bob Lutz, G.M.'s vice chairman... has been quoted as saying that hybrids like the Toyota Prius "make no economic sense."", Friedman writes. "And, in February, D Magazine of Dallas quoted him as saying that global warming "is a total crock of [expletive]," according to Friedman in his Nov. 11 column.
Why not be audacious? Bold action can spur success from unexpected sources.
In the early 1970's, Intel reluctantly entered the microprocessor business. The company was already manufacturing memory chips and struggling to meet demand.
But Robert Noyce, Intel's founder, instinctively understood the vast potential of the multi-function microprocessor and he urged his managers to develop it.
The entrepreneur faces a dilemma. He never knows if his vision today will be relevant tomorrow.
The very fact that entrepreneurs keep on going in spite of the unknown suggests that the unknown itself is part of the adventure.
The life-threatening dilemma facing Detroit automakers today suggests that bold visions, risky bets - the DNA of entrepreneurial life - were bleached out of the culture.
Friedman uses Better Place to suggest that anyone with entrepreneurial spunk can seize the moment and embark on a whole new way of doing things. And Better Place founder, Shai Agassi, has done just that.
His "company is focused on one of this century's biggest challenges - building a scalable and sustainable personal transportation system that ends oil dependence," according to the Better Place web site.
Agassi's vision, if it succeeds, not only holds great promise. Much like the iPod and iTunes did to the CD music business, his vision could completely up-end the automobile industry. No wonder Friedman entitled his article, "While Detroit Slept."
"Do not expect this innovation to come out of Detroit," Friedman said. "Remember, in 1908, the Ford Model-T got better mileage - 25 miles per gallon - than many Ford, G.M. and Chrysler models made in 2008. But don't be surprised when it comes out of somewhere else. It can be done. It will be done."
Knowledge and innovation are like quicksilver.
These days, innovation can happen anywhere, not just in places like Detroit where the once invincible General Motors set the pace of car innovation for consumers.
"If you have an idea in Detroit or Tennessee," Friedman writes, "Promise me that you'll pursue it, because someone in Denmark or Tel Aviv will do so a second later."
No one has a lock on new ideas. And, because of globalization and the success of the Internet, it's easier than ever to put new ideas into motion. We don't have to wait for once-great companies like G.M. to issue edicts.
Instead of innovating, they insulated; and now they're dying.
"Under the Better Place model," Friedman writes, "Consumers can either buy or lease an electric car from the French automaker Renault or Japanese companies like Nissan (General Motors snubbed Agassi) and then buy miles on their electric car batteries from Better Place the way you now buy an Apple cellphone and the minutes from AT&T. That way Better Place, or any car company that partners with it, benefits from each mile you drive. G.M. sells cars. Better Place is selling mobility miles," Friedman said.
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