The Case For GM, In Glorious Powerpoint
With GM’s share price currently hovering below $25, well under its $33 IPO price, The General is holding its second annual Global Business Conference in hopes of encouraging investors the world over to buy into its turnaround. A webcast is currently streaming over at the GM Investor Relations website, but the key points are available in slides available in PDF here. The presentation involves nearly every level of GM’s business, so listening in and reading the entire PDF is going to be the best way to make sense of what GM is trying to communicate… but if you just want an overview, check out the gallery below for a few hand-picked slides, illustrating some of the more important points.
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Lost in this discussion is the observation that young people, generally speaking, are more interested in personal electronics (computers, phones, games) than they are in cars. Many people posting here (including me) are excited by cars and find computers, etc to be appliances. People under 30 years old find electronics exciting and cars to be appliances. I think GM is trying to channel that youthful excitement but doesn't see the bigger picture.
Slide 47 of 66: The United States is referred to as the "Untied" States. Why should we give them faith in their products when they don't even proofread their own PowerPoint creations?
So which brand of automobile out there really is the most like Apple in terms of branding? Tesla? Lotus? This isn't about who makes cars that most resemble ipods stylistically (that would probably be Toyota - when was the last time you saw a Camry that wasn't white or silver?), but that their products are instantly recognizable as appealing to someone who wants functionality with a little flair. My vote goes to Mazda for the non-luxury category.
Speaking of computer Holy Wars. I was a "Sysop" in those days. That's what the moderators of a "BBS" were called. The feuds between "Windoze" and "F*intosh" and OS/2 caught in-between (I forgot what name that was called) became so bad that people poured acid over cars. Serious death threats were made. We had a secret meeting of sysops of warring BBS and agreed to ban everybody who just mentioned these things. The feuds continued, but on a more civilized level.