General Motors-Back from the dead?
A guy I know-his name's Buck-used to work for General Motors back in the 1960s. During that time, he was in the company's stock purchase plan and, of course, he drove GM cars. Well, Buck left General Motors and moved on. Over the years, he found himself bitterly disappointed by what had happened to this once dominant company, particularly during the reign of CEO Roger B. Smith. Buck referred to himself as "an ex-GM employee, an ex-GM stockholder, and an ex-GM customer."
No more. Buck told me recently that he bought some GM stock. He's glad he did; his investment grew more than 25 percent in less than 12 months. Over the years, Buck drove vehicles made by the Germans, the Swedes, the Japanese, Ford, and Chrysler-but never GM. Now, lo and behold, he just bought a new Chevy Blazer. He said that on a price/performance basis, it's the best sport-utility vehicle in the world-"better than Jeep, better than Ford, a whole lot better than any import," he claimed.
Is GM coming back from the dead? Maybe. There are hundreds of thousands of dedicated, hard-working men and women at that company. Few of GM's myriad problems have been caused by them, or by the UAW, or by government. The problems have been with the guys at the top. The jury's still out, but maybe they're changing-finally.
Grace under fire: Hewlett-Packard
One of the companies I admire most is Hewlett-Packard. In fact, HP may be the best major manufacturing company in the world. If not, it has to be in the top five.
For evidence I could submit a lot of data dealing with customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, quality, innovation, etc. Or, having visited Hewlett-Packard operations in the U.S. and Japan, I could give you chapter and verse about the good things going on at those plants. Or we could talk about the technical excellence of their products. I can remember one HP employee telling me some years ago that HP made products "designed by nerds, for nerds, that only nerds could love." She was only half-kidding.
I'd rather look at what the company's been up to for the last year or so with personal computers, specifically the consumer PC market. The PC business is one of the most competitive and unforgiving industries in the world, and one of the purest expressions of free enterprise ever. (That's why we Americans are the worldwide leaders in personal computers; when the playing field is level, we're the best.)
Well, Hewlett-Packard sold a lot of great printers for PCs, but was never a major player in personal computers per se. However, in 1994 the decision was made to change all that. Business Week (8/21/95) reported that HP "came from nowhere just a few years ago to take the number six position in PC sales during this year's second quarter."
How is this possible? One answer is that HP does almost everything very well. Few companies are better at capturing the voice of the customer and imbedding it into the design of their products. Few companies can match HP in how well they develop and nurture their human resources. Few companies in North America are better at continuous improvement, waste elimination and constant innovation. Few companies are better at delighting their customers.
To delight customers, it's necessary to get the product to them. (Hard to argue with that, right?) HP excels here also. Recently, IBM, Apple and others have experienced critical product shortages, thereby missing significant revenue opportunities and deeply disappointing their immediate customers: the retail trade. Big league retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Computer Center and Office Depot have a low tolerance for stock-outs, and they have very long memories. They also know HP's history of keeping them in stock on printers, and are betting on getting the same excellent delivery service on HP computers. I doubt they'll be disappointed.
Dr. Lee Seaton of HP's Industry Solutions Center in Cupertino, Calif., says a good deal of the company's success in order fulfillment/customer service is due to sales and operations planning. HP makes excellent use of this powerful tool.
So here's a company that not long ago made products designed by and for nerds attacking the hyper-competitive home PC market. Not only is HP succeeding, it's doing so with a quiet competence, with assurance, and-dare I say-with grace. And they're making it look easy. They've come from nowhere to become one of the top players in the consumer PC business, and they've done it in about a year. Amazing.
When I was a kid, Joe DiMaggio was still playing center field for the New York Yankees. He played brilliantly, with style and grace. The Yankee Clipper made it look easy. Hewlett-Packard is the Joe DiMaggio of industry, and my hat's off to them.