The story of the New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) plant, a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota Motor Company that began in 1984 and ended this past March, offers powerful lessons for American corporate and political leaders. As part of the joint venture, Toyota showed GM the secrets of its production system, one that created cars of higher quality and lower cost than GM was capable of producing. Given this knowledge, why did GM fail 25 years later?
General Motors, long a symbol of American corporate might, found itself on a long slide beginning in the 1970s that began with eroding market share and ended with the largest bankruptcy filing in the history of the United States. Ira Glass, host of NPRs This American Life describes in this wonderful show how a car plant in Fremont, California might have saved the U.S. automotive industry. The show is 60 minutes long, but I highly recommend that you take the time to listen when you get a chance.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/403/nummi?bypass=true
I lived in Detroit in the mid 1980s, when Japan-bashing was in vogue. Japanese cars were destroyed by angry mobs of people, a scary sight, one that impressed upon my teenage mind the ugly side of nationalism. Realizing that this NUMMI project started in that era really got me thinking this morning.
Our great nation is facing a similar challenge today. While the United States remains the political and economic hegemon in the world today, its position seems more tenuous than ever. Like the GM Freemont plant before the NUMMI project, our workforce is in relatively poor shape, we’ve lost much of the manufacturing base that made our country great, our rights have become greatly restricted and our educational and medical systems are losing ground.
While I am not advocating copying any other country’s systems, I do feel that we can adapt to the new world much more quickly than we are. What will it take?
For starters, a resuscitation of the American spirit. The American spirit – the esprit de corps that earned our country its place in history – still beats in the hearts of our men and women. It is, however, smothered with layers of regulation, oxidized by years of disuse and in desperate need of inspiration.
Secondly, we need to eschew any ego-centric and isolationist tendencies. While it is no doubt easier to see in hindsight than while in the thick of it, the insular culture at GM likely blinded many involved in the company to the reality of their eroding leadership in the automotive industry. They failed to “Leggo my Eggo” at a critical time and the results were devastating and in many ways, inevitable based on that state of mind.
Finally, we need to restore respect, honor and decency to their rightful place in our homes, in our schools and in our workplaces. In far too many cases people feel incapable of offering solutions because they feel that if they do they won’t be heard. The tragic divide between labor and management in our nation’s automotive workforce are the perfect example of this need. If we are to succeed together, we must look to work more cooperatively in every area of our function. Hiding behind rules instead of encouraging and rewarding integrity, regulating instead of teaching responsibility, blindly following traditions and relying mindlessly on prejudices versus thinking things through, will always compromise our efforts together.
As a nation we must return to an emphasis on quality. Quality of expression. Quality of forethought. Quality in execution. Quality of care. Just emphasizing quantity – being the biggest, selling most, being the most powerful – is not a sustainable approach. We must look carefully at our businesses, our medical system, our schools and in our governments to see where we are destroying ourselves from the inside out with such mantras as “Never stop the line.”
The world needs evidence of leadership that sets the standard well above the mean. I am convinced that mankind will hew to such a standard if given half a chance, as did the GM “lifers” who were transformed by their experience in the NUMMI project.
“Mankind” is a general term. To be more specific, will you rise to the challenge?
Gregory Hake 
In your example you can see how corporate culture can really make or break a company, and the same holds true for the national culture. Do we allow ourselves (and therefore our country) to stifle our freedom to give solutions? Do we allow ourselves to be risk averse, overly protective, rule-centric and litigious? Or do we hold ourselves and others to a higher standard of sustainable self-control? Don’t be afraid to do the right thing, loud and proud! On a related note, I read that the Republican party set up a website, polling the general public to submit and rank policy ideas. We’ll see if they use what they’re given. Thanks for the great post!
LikeLike
LOL about “Leggo my Eggo” – perfectly captures both the lack of maturity and vision behind the egocentric and isolationist tendencies you describe, AND the ease with which failure can be avoided if we are just willing to let go of those attitudes. It’s not the only waffle, we can share and pop another one in the toaster!
LikeLike
Gregg, I think it is great that your posts cover such a wide variety of topics yet they all have one thing in common, that significant change on any level always starts with oneself. If ever anyone has the question “what can one person do?” or more specifically “what can I do?” they can find immediate starting points on your blog. I for one really appreciate those points each day!
LikeLike
Thought provoking post. Have you thought about submitting some of your posts to business journals? They’d make great editorial pieces.
LikeLike
Your post reminds me of the value and difference that one person can make. Too often we seem to sit around and wait for others to make the first move of what is obviously change that needs to be made and often too late discover that in fact nobody made the change but instead all sat around waiting. And then guess what – it is too late!
During those years of decline by GM there were likely thousands who had great ideas about what would be needed to pull out of the tailspin but never opened their mouths. Perhaps the atmosphere was not condusive to the sharing of ideas, or maybe people just became complacant or had given up that anyone would care. Whatever the reason, the outcome is now a sad history and another missed opportunity to provide genuine leadership and greatness.
We all have opportunities to be involved with wonderful changes – our lives can stand for something of genuine value and can make a difference in the world. The potential and opportunity for each of us as individuals is greater than ever, as is the need for us to truly step up to the plate and take a full swing at the next pitch (opportunity) that comes our way.
There might be some guidelines that we could follow to make certain that when we do swing there will be a connection. For example:
– Look to add value to the end user and their experience
– Look for solution rather than focus on just the problem
– Be willing to see what others in a similar place are doing and do the exact opposite
– Don’t be concerned about getting credit for yourself
– No short cuts but look for sustainable solutions
– Honor
Remember, each one of us as individuals can make a difference – it has to start somewhere!
LikeLike
Great points, Chuck. Batter up!
LikeLike