Professor Elam

I will likely be at the British and European Car Day  at White Rock Lake this Sunday. but then I have learned my lesson, look don’t buy!  Sadly Ford is coming to grips with its lesson.  Now Ford want so  sell its Premier Auto Group , which has only been premier in losing money.  This is an interesting article as it notes that the remaining three brands will likely split Land Rover/Jag and Volvo since Volvo shares little with the other two.  The article also notes that Toyota has never made such a mistake. Instead of buying others, launched Lexus and Scion both of which are big money makers.  Gee Ford wishes they could say that as does GM about buying Saab.  And then there was BMW’s disaster with the Rover Group, not the Land Rover, in which they lost $3B.

So Okay Professor now relate this to the class.  Well you will recall that Dr. Deming says it is important to be focused on the long term results of the company’s operation, which ,means you don’t wander the landscape buying someone else that does it all a different way.  Jag was not only different, it lacked quality, was a living antique, and lost money, oh did I mention the British union? Toyota on the other hand did it right.  The one exception lately was the takeover of Nissan by Renault, who would have guessed. 

Meanwhile it appears that Rupert Murdoch may well take over the Wall Street Journal.   Years back this would have been impossible, and indeed Murdoch is really paying above market. Can he make it work, along with his planned competitor to CNBC?  Again the point is that everyone can be for sale if the buying hedge fund has enough money.