Are You Getting It Yet, GM?
Okay, I’m trying to be all good and techie oriented, but it’s hard with the “will they or won’t they survive” drama afoot for the Big Three. After my grousing (along with that of many other folk) about the execs going hat in hand to Washington aboard their private jets, I was amused to read in the New York Times this morning that GM started out with seven planes. Two were grounded in September when the leases expired and now two more are being returned leaving the company with just three. (They’re not admitting it was because the big wigs were Congressionally spanked.)
But buried deep in the article was something that is tech-related and something I whole-heartedly support. GM says its engineers and executives are conducting more video conferences. There’s a whole lot more involved in ending our dependence on fossil fuels than developing hybrids and alternative fuel sources. We have this great big wonderful global common denominator called the Internet and all the infrastructure on which it lives. Watched an Oprah lately? After she conducted an online class with author Eckhart Tolle and used Skype to communicate with far-flung class members, Skype video calls are now an every day part of her show.
The truth of the matter is that often now we don’t need to hop a jet or even hop in our cars to “take a meeting.” Somehow I think Congress might be more impressed with GM execs who had a $30 webcam on their desks than a $3 million plane sitting somewhere in the hangar. This little tidbit about video conferencing is at the heart of why the auto execs failed in their plea for help this week and why the American auto industry has been lagging behind for so long. This is not post-World War II industrial America. It’s the 21st century. Things can be done differently — and better — and the time has come to do them that way. Listen GM and you just might get the help you say you need.