I read about TOYOTA overtaking GM in car sales in the news published by many newspapers yesterday. And I noticed that all the top people in GM were saying that the reason for GM losing it to its competitor is because of its poor marketing strategy and thus failing to sell to its consumers especially Americans. Yes, I agree strongly that GM failed in marketing and production strategy and that is GM’s lack of green thinking in its production and marketing strategy.
TOYOTA came up with green cars like the Hybrid Car, which is more durable, fuel efficient etc and became a big success all over the world, especially in America. GM was making cars which made people very happy until early nineties when no one was bothering about gas price, energy security and climate change. Now a days people are more aware and are concerned about the environment and energy security issues. TOYOTA acted early by realizing what people needed or wanting to have in late nineties and came up with this novel idea of Hybrid car, which adopts the hybrid engine model. (The hybrid engine switches to electric mode when the battery is fully charged and when the battery is weak, it runs on gas while charging the battery and thus saving a significant % of fuel usage). While GM went on producing the gas-guzzlers, light trucks etc to make early money and pull out of its financial difficulties rather than focusing on the impending energy and climate change problems in the future.
As the author of Natural capitalism, Amory Lovins puts it - The 21st century is the century of businesses which care about environment and sustainability, and which is very true in this case. When it was first published, not many cared about it ….. and now every one is seeing the results for themselves.
So ‘Go Green’ to succeed in this fast changing 21st century world and to outwit your competitors J.
few more sources FYI :
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4039110a30.html
http://www.forbes.com/markets/2007/04/24/toyota-general-motors-markets-equity-cx_vk_0424markets05.html
