Déjà Vu: Letter to Obama suggests Steve Jobs to head GM, Chrysler
February 25th, 2009 | by |Filed under: Etc., Chrysler, LLC., GM, Earnings/Financials
Back in November, a New York Times columnist thought it would be a good idea for Apple CEO Steve Jobs to come to the auto industry’s rescue. Jobs is worshiped by many in the tech world, and many feel that he pretty much saved Apple in the 1990s. But thinking that a brilliant tech guy can right the ship at struggling automakers could possibly be called a stretch. Well, Spark Capital founder Todd Dagres doesn’t think so, as evidenced by his recent open letter to President Barack Obama.
Dagres, like many financial analysts, feels that the auto industry is worth saving, if only to keep its high paying jobs and stave off a deeper nationwide recession. He understands that market conditions helped cause the auto industry’s current struggles, but says General Motors and Chrysler don’t make products that people want to buy. He feels Steve Jobs could step in and provide design and product leadership that could help return a combined General Motors/Chrysler to their former glory.
Steve Jobs has been nothing short of heroic during his second tenure with Apple, but comparing his Cupertino-based company to GM and Chrysler is like comparing Apple to oranges. For instance, GM still builds its own engines, transmissions and many other components that make up their automobiles. Apple doesn’t make its own processors, motherboards, graphics cards, hard drives or disc drives. In other words, the two industries are far too different for Jobs - or any other tech guy - to make a difference. Dagres argument is also predicated on the assumption that GM and Chrysler are selling vehicles that people don’t want to buy. While that may be true to an extent with Chrysler, GM’s lineup is chock full of competitive products. To simply say they’re not what people want is willfully ignoring the countless other reasons for not buying a new car during a recession.
[Source: Tech Crunch]
Déjà Vu: Letter to Obama suggests Steve Jobs to head GM, Chrysler originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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