An auto industry analyst offers a fast-paced, accessible probe of the struggle for success in the world auto market, focusing on GM, Toyota, and Volkswagen, showing how their fortunes affect the world's total economy. 35,000 first printing. $35,000 ad/promo. Tour.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Keller ( Rude Awakening: The Rise, Fall and Struggle for Recovery of General Motors ), is an auto industry financial analyst who clearly knows the field and enjoys writing about it. Her newest book is a fast-paced account of the triumphs and failures of three of the world's largest car manufacturers, and an examination of the challenges they face. Keller provides readers with a brief history of GM, Toyota and Volkswagen and outlines how each company reached the top of its market. She then moves on to give a detailed and--in the case of GM--riveting, behind-the-scenes description of how and why the top figures at all three car companies were replaced during the past two years. GM and Volkswagen come in for particular criticism from Keller, centering mainly on the way each allowed its dominant (and profitable) market position to erode. And Keller makes it clear that while Toyota has avoided the spectacular money-losing years recently reported by GM and Volkswagen, the company faces a difficult future due in part to economic and social problems confronting all of Japan. While Keller is extremely critical of the previous leadership of GM, she concludes her enjoyable industry study with the prediction that the changes being implemented by the new GM regime make the company the most likely candidate to succeed as the strongest auto maker of the 21st century.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
According to Keller, an automotive financial analyst, the car industry is exemplified by three world-class competitors representing distinct national cultures (American, Japanese, and German), each facing the challenge to enter a 21st-century market dominated by previously unknown challenges. Obviously fascinated with her subject, Keller ( Rude Awakening , LJ 7/89) traces the origins of each company and illustrates the factors that make each unique. She sees the next century as a new industrial age demanding management skills and decisions that each of these companies has not faced before. While concluding that one of these seems better able to make the transition into the future, she admits that her opinion is tentative and subject to revision. This excellent case study is suitable for business collections.
- Joseph Barth, U. S. Military Acad., West Point, N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Joseph Barth, U. S. Military Acad., West Point, N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting subject matter,
By Carper (Europe) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Collision: GM, Toyota, Volkswagen and the Race to Own the 21st Century (Hardcover)
This was a bit of a disappointment for me: the writing is not inspiring, structure is a bit haphazard. It IS useful for learning a basic--very basic--grounding in how Toyota, GM, and Volkswagen came to be and a bit about what happened to them in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She is appropriately tough on GM--which I suspect is her real field of expertise. She understands VWs problems pretty well--they are, after all, well documented. She seems to understand Toyota far less well--perhaps understandably; it's clear that it's just a lot harder to understand what's going on over there. Of course with the benefit of hindsight the clearest flaw in the book becomes obvious: she equates Toyota's problems with those of the other companies. And seems to predict that General Motors will come out on top. 13 years after the book was published--today--I read that GM's bonds had been lowered to junk bond status. Volkswagen had a decent run in the 90s though things don't look so great now; Toyota is utterly dominant. Unfortunately the fact that she got that so very wrong--who'd come out on top was the subject of the book--makes me question almost everything else she wrote. Too bad.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exciting book for automotive industry lovers,
By A Customer
This review is from: Collision: GM, Toyota, Volkswagen and the Race to Own the 21st Century (Hardcover)
If you are interesting in automotive industry stories this book will you like it. Collision has a very nice narrative and it is not difficult to read. I recomend it.
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