Re: The New Austin Brexit
I loved my Austin, it was my first car and ran like a dream. Until it turned into a rust bucket that is...
We have some of the most innovative people here and some of the best engineering skills but we have never been able to deal well with investing in that talent or dealing with expansion when business goes global. Joining up the dots is not a great talent when things get complex. Charisma is not king, the customer is.
In Germany they have many medium sized or smaller businesses that are privately owned. It works well for them. They tend to focus on their own specialty rather than try to be the whole orchestra. It's not the best model but it works for them because of their culture of cooperation. They do value education, expertise and engineering far more than we do. It's a national treasure there. What's our national treasure? The Queen?
We can't afford to manufacture at the rates the workforce wants here, when the rest of the world is using cheap countries in the far east.
We are very good at retail. This requires having great trading relationships and open channels of reliable supplies. But again many are being complacent about the internet revolution. I observed BHS for years. I'm surprised it didn't fold sooner. It was in the worst position strategically.
Various companies just don't know when it's time to change. Ostrich mentality? Or hobbit mentality?