Detroit Innovation = Oxymoron

I just got back from a little road trip my dad and I took to St. Louis this weekend. While away at college here in Whitewater, I have no car, so I relished the opportunity to get back behind the wheel and shoulder most of the driving duties. When driving anywhere, you can’t help yourself from thinking about all the turmoil you hear coming out of Detroit these days. We have gotten to the point where “Big 3” news is not only anticipated, but expected.

Chris Anderson wrote a terrific article in this month’s Wired magazine, Detroit Reimagined. Like you, I have heard countless experts offer their synopsis of how Detroit lost its market share to the smarter, more efficient Japanese competition. Anderson sheds some light on what has become a long dark tunnel. Instead of focusing on how we are getting killed on labor costs and supply chain inferiority, Anderson talks about how Detroit has not been receptive to outside opinions on innovation and technology. Therefore, none of the most sought after young minds coming out of Americas most prestigious Universities are entertaining the idea of working for GM or Ford, they’re all going to Hewlett Packard and Dell.

We are all familiar with the stigma that Detroit automakers have earned this past decade, Anderson suggests outsourcing some of the R&D and then rewarding those with the most competitive designs. Think of it as an App store for Hybrid technology. What if all those creative minds had been working on a more efficient hybrid to compete with Toyota instead of tip calculators and games? Why aren’t they? I’ll tell you why, it’s because GM, Ford, and, Chrysler have insisted on maintaining their elephant like speed in adapting to the competition.