CAR Management Briefing Seminar Report 1

CAR MANAGEMENT BRIEFING SEMINARS
Another Year of Analyzing Radical Change
By Steve Purdy
TheAutoChannel.com
Detroit Bureau

Here we are in beautiful Traverse City, Michigan again for the annual Management Briefing Seminars hosted by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR). Over the years this has become one of the most important and significant industry conferences of its kind.

As long as I’ve been covering these conferences the themes have always had to do with managing change, managing rapid change, managing disruptive change, and now, managing radical change. This year’s title: Today’s Turmoil.

It would be fair to say that the automobile industry has suffered the most radical decline in its recent history. I’ll leave it to historians to assess whether the Great Depression triggered a more radical one. In the early 30s there were more, smaller companies and the world was not the stage. Let’s just say that I’ve never seen anything like this in my lifetime, and hope not to again.

When compared to the banking and the real estate businesses we could argue all day about which one has been the most disruptive. But why bother. They’re all in crisis.

This week the Center for Automotive Research will present dozens of the smartest people in the global automobile business, a few politicians, lots of scientists and engineers a even a few bureaucrats to explore what’s ahead for automobiles and the automobile business.

Individual seminars will explore: how to reduce manufacturing costs, the future of “connected” vehicles (more on that later), fuel economy issues, how to accelerate the pace of innovation, how to manage within the turmoil, the roll of government in the auto business, sustainability, the effect of climate change concerns, powertrain advancements, the roll of finance and lots more.

As important are the myriad opportunities for industry mavens, government leaders, analysts and other folks to create networks and solutions over cocktails and fine eats. (That’s my favorite part.)

So, watch this space this week for a daily report on what jumps out at us here at the Management Briefing Seminars.