Mamma - Why didn't we listen?

One of the most interesting books I’ve read in recent times is Satisfaction: How Every Great Company Listens to the Voice of the Customer by J.D. Power and Chris Denove. Power, founder of J. D. Power and Associates recalls a meeting he held with GM / Pontiac executives in January 1980 when he detailed the Japanese automakers emphasis on quality. Power told the geniuses then responsible for the Pontiac brand that unless they improved product quality, product reliability and fuel consumption, the GM market share would tumble. He predicted that the GM share of 48% would drop to 33% by the end of the decade. Not too surprisingly, some of the Pontiac / GM representatives did not take too kindly to the prediction.
I bet they wish they had paid attention now that GM has announced another whopping quarterly loss – $15.5 billion and its share value is less than when Power made his prediction only twenty-eight years ago!

To be fair to the GM execs, I would have probably discounted his apparently extreme forecast as well (in fact, the share decline he predicted took only eight years to occur), but you really have to ask, what have GM and Ford and Chrysler being doing over the past three decades? It is nothing short of incredible (sorry maybe that should read predictable) that GM’s share now hovers around twenty percent of the market, while Ford and Chrysler are close to life support.

The lesson for management I think is one I mention in my book Why Ireland Never Invaded America. It is ‘Do not believe your own blarney – do not take things for granted.’ Had these once profitable organizations paid real attention to what was happening in the market place and genuinely listened to the voice of the customer, they would not be in the position they are in today. Their one saving grace right now is that each of the once so-called Big Three does appear to have quality management – Wagoner (GM), Mullally (Ford), Nardelli (Chrysler), in the hot seat.