Wouldn’t it be great if Bill Ford or Bernd Pischetsrieder went on a car blog and chatted with car nuts?
   There are Bob Lutz’s posts at GM’s FastLane Blog, but they seem to be exceptions. Some posts are merely targeted at current, disposable-income-ready American customers. Having a divisional head pushing the GMC Arcadia was a bit of a yawn. Mate, it sounded like a bloody ad—so, why am I reading FastLane again? (And, obscure reference time: wasn’t The Fast Lane the name of a documentary about John Z. De Lorean?) Bob’s latest entry is about future Opels, which are significant, but he did miss the Commodore launch, which was the début for GM’s global rear-wheel-drive, large car architecture, or Zeta as it was known.
   GM supporters might be able to correct me, but I don’t think I have seen Bob in the comments in response—which he would if it were a real blog. Don’t get me wrong, I admire the guy heaps and think he is a true motorhead and a gentleman. But the blog looks like, for the most part, a one-way marketing vehicle from GM.
   However, the CEO of Tesla Motors, with an electric-powered roadster on the way on the 20th, has been chatting to car nuts on Autoblog. Martin Eberhard has been explaining things about electric-powered vehicles, from defining kilowatt hours to investors and assembly, and basically defending his patch.
   I think this is admirable, and the way of the future. CEOs should be out there, caring about the customer, and hearing comments. I proposed recently on an assignment that the organization be restructured so the incoming CEO was answering feedback form comments, or at least a minimum of one-third of them (it was not a huge organization). How else can an it be steered and its image managed, in a world driven by brands? Quarterly figures do not cut it in the real world. Posted by Jack Yan, 11:18  permalink

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