Century Long legacy Lost

When I walked into General Motors head quarters at renaissance center, Detroit Michigan, in 2008 at the time when GM was celebrating its 100 years , I was amazed. After seeing all the models being displayed there along the sides of Detroit river front I just had one word holy cow !!!.

Being an automobile enthusiast, who managed to build a small go cart car during the college days and having spent initial days of work in assembly of Hyundai cars , being at the automotive headquarters was a dream. I have heard numerous times people saying Chennai/Pune is Detroit of India . after seeing that I could just think they were probably saying about the “OLD “Detroit. The comparison would never come if somebody sees the lost legacy of GM , Chysrsler , and Ford in the city of automotive. Most of people still wonder why they should stay in Detroit when they don’t have their jobs anymore.

Even in wildest of my dream I would never imagine a 100 year old company which was # 1 for 77 consecutive years to fail so miserably. A company which was building amazing brands like GMC, Cadillac Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab cannot keep its market ? how weird.

So what would have gone wrong ? Rattner's fault ? Obama’s Administration, high oil prices, Toyota, fickle consumers, the recession, or high labor . All that I could feel is everything.

The chapter 11 bankruptcy would be a disaster to the existing crumbling economy. GM will shed its Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab brands and cut loose more than 2,000 of its 6,000 U.S. dealerships by next year. That could result in more than 100,000 additional job losses if those dealerships are forced to close. A dozen facilities were identified for closure. Those plants employ most of the more than 20,000 U.S. workers GM intends to cut by the end of next year

Personally I feel that GM loss of focus towards customer was one of the main reasons for failure. Though Japanese and Koreans did post losses but they were not as bad as their American counterparts. After driving Pontiac , Buick, Saturn, Saab, dodge(Chrysler) , Mercury (Ford) I just feel that they are no match for Toyota. For that reason 95 % of immigrants in US buy Japanese or Korean. While GM had too many brands Toyota just concentrated on the customer satisfaction , driveablity , and Fuel efficiency . Whereas most of GM cars where gas gushers for that case Hummer we cannot say miles per gallon rather we can say gallons per mile.

One of the other main reasons was decentralized organization of so many brands . The brands which were created to compete between themselves didn’t realize they will loose their edge when they do not collaborate. will not use commonly things which they could have. Each of the brand where manufacturing their own components which again not a good ideas with current centralized supply chain concepts.

One of the other reason is of course the oil prices even though GM was posting many years of consecutive losses it was still running, But the huge increase in oil prices made even the patriotic American to buy a Toyota.

Leaving all these behind as a person who have admired GM so much along with many, Still believes that GM will emerge even as a stronger company after bankruptcy . According to GM's bankruptcy filing , the company has assets of $82.3 billion, and liabilities of $172.8 billion. The new GM will have only $17 billion in debt, rather than the $54.4 billion it owed as of March 31

Let’s hope to see the new beginning of GM

My Name is Hunger , My daugther is Thirst !!!

"Didi, have you come to make news out of our misery? Want to know our names? Please write down, my name is Hunger and this daughter of mine, who lost her father at 5, is called Thirst", says a woman in her mid 20s carrying a half-naked child in her arms.

This is one of the statements that stuck me when I was reading through the article of Aila victim.

I keep wondering why is devastating aila didn’t get as much as media attention it should have got. Is it because it have happened in much backward area ?, is that the media attention will only be got when blame political occurs ? Is it because the poor can’t break free ? Is it because seeing the condition of people the 32 year old government will be exposed ?

As far as number goes aila left 200,000 homeless. Took 160 lives, and affected 50 lakh people. Environmental disaster is also enormous. sundarbans is believed to have 250 royal Bengal tigers amidst the mangroves . However experts believe that tigers are strong animal, they can swim over a long time to keep themselves safe. Wish the species which is heading towards extinction is safe.

Indian media is wonderful negative minded media, its enjoys attention in putting 10,000 negative points about each thing.100 News channels don’t make enough news to put for 24 hours, They just drill deep and create a framework , directs a story and end the climax when its time for next story. Most of the media obviously spend more time in putting news of Saif – kareena and bipashu - John. Oh far that case sehwag dhoni rift is running for more than week infact more than the Aila news. Aila (marathi slang) what a media.

The aftermath disasters will always follow with dieses spreading through water. Even though everybody is trying to give relief material and move them to safe area , we always feel that it’s not enough and should be better.

Imagine the same occurs in places like Mumbai where the whole world would have been there and every news channel would be making 28 hours live broadcast. Aaj tak would interview 10,000 people to find what was wrong in the relief process again proving how sick is India media. Aila though it’s been shown in various media neither got public attention nor was extensively captured.

But on contradictory victims are tired giving interview to media , they just feel if the media person would have bought, food and water instead of cameras and video tapes.

Aila politics, Aila Media !!!! Aila India !!!