Feb. 8, 2010
BOOK REVIEW: 'The Selling of the American Economy' Explores Impact of Foreign Companies -- Including Toyota -- on U.S. Economy, Especially Manufacturing
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
Toyota is in the midst of its biggest quality crisis ever, which is somewhat unfortunate for the latest book on the auto industry by New York Times senior business correspondent Micheline Maynard, "The Selling of the American Economy: How Foreign Companies Are Remaking the American Dream" (Broadway Business, a division of Random House, 272 pages, $26.00).
The widening recall crisis facing the Japanese auto giant -- a truly global company with a big manufacturing big presence in the U.S. and more than two dozen other nations -- reveals the story behind the story: a company famous for its quality reputation that is also infamous for its inept crisis management handling of recalls involving sudden acceleration and now problems with brakes in its halo Prius model.
Maynard's book came out late in October, well before the latest revelations of problems with many models of Toyotas, and -- to be fair to her, much of the book deals with three other foreign companies in the U.S.: Tata of India, Haier of China and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), a French-German firm that manufactures helicopters in Mississippi. Also to be fair to her, she discusses the quality control problems of Toyota that antedated the latest ones.
Still, Maynard, who calls her book the continuation of a previous book on the American auto industry, "The End of Detroit," comes across all too often as a cheerleader for Toyota. She drives a Prius and lives in Ann Arbor, the Berkeley of Michigan, an upscale community home to the University of Michigan and a far cry from the gritty streets of Detroit.
Maynard argues that despite the lingering xenophobia that colors American perception of foreign-owned companies, foreign investments are actually an overwhelmingly positive force. Not only do they create thousands of jobs and pump billions of dollars into national and local economies, she says, they reinvigorate and strengthen communities, foster innovation and diversity in the marketplace, and teach Americans new ways to live and work.
In the manner of her Times colleague Louis Uchitelle ("The Disposable American", Knopf, 2006, for my review: http://archives.huntingtonnews.net/columns/060521-kinchen-review.html) Maynard presents us with moving stories of workers whose lives have been transformed by the arrival of companies like Toyota, Airbus, and Tata. She also interviewed many government officials, including Michigan's Canadian-born governor, Jennifer Granholm, who have fought -- often against the will of their supporters -- to lure foreign companies to their communities and states. She also obtained a rare interview with Toyota's new president, Akio Toyoda, who has just apologized to one and all for the recalls and the damage to Toyota's reputation for building quality vehicles.
Akio Toyoda on Friday, Feb. 5, 2010 held a press conference, two long weeks since the U.S. gas pedal safety recall was announced. Toyoda tried to rescue the situation by apologizing for the inconvenience to customers around the world. The company ascribes the alleged brake problems to customers misunderstanding the feeling of the ABS braking system and says that only the 2009 model Prius is involved. Since January, the company has fixed the software so that the ABS responds more quickly.
Observers have said that the apology is too little and too late, that Toyota -- and Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder, who was named president in 2009 -- still haven't gotten the need for a full-bore crisis management effort, on the order of the Tylenol recall. TV commercials apologizing for the slip in quality were rushed into production and even use sincere black and white -- you know it's sincere if it's in B&W -- images of past Toyotas and past customers at a dealership in Hollywood, CA.
As the cliche goes, only time will tell if Toyota will regain its stellar reputation. Its operation in Putnam County, West Virginia, which manufactures engines, has long been one of the firm's best operations and apparently has nothing to do with the problems involved in the recalls. Still, like all the other plants in the U.S., it's affected by the halt in Toyota production.
What does "Buy American" mean anymore, when Maynard's own publisher is owned by Germans (Bertelsmann), when the iconic Eight O'Clock coffee (my day starts with their Hazelnut flavor!) is owned by Tata of Mumbai, India, which also bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford? Haier was thwarted in its attempt to buy Maytag, Maynard writes, losing out to Whirlpool of my native state of Michigan, which quickly shut down Maytag's Iowa plants, shifting manufacturing overseas. Haier is a successful vendor to Walmart, which demands high quality from its suppliers.
How about Chrysler, along with General Motors forced into bankruptcy? Fiat, of Turin, Italy, is bailing out one of our oldest and most iconic automakers, not out of altruism, but to gain access to Chrysler's extensive dealer network. If Americans can accept the view that Fiat's notorious quality control problems of the past ("Fix It Again, Tony" or "Feeble Italian Attempt at Transportation" is what many Americans think Fiat stands for) are ancient history, Chrysler may soon have the fuel-efficient cars that Americans want.
Nestle, an American icon? It's based in Switzerland. Budweiser, which commands more than half of the American beer market, is now owned by a foreign company (I only hope that some day Budweiser would taste like Stella Artois, a premium beer from inBev). In 2008 Anheuser-Busch sold the majority of their stock to Belgian-Brazilian beer giant InBev, to create the largest brewing company in the world.
Maynard mentions tiny Buffalo, West Virginia, where Toyota makes engines and how its employees come from 27 of the 55 counties in the Mountain State. She also tells fo the revitalization of Georgetown, KY, just north of Lexington, and how Toyota's massive plant there has brought revitalized Georgetown's dying downtown.
Let me be a cheerleader for a moment, something I just accused Maynard of: I hope that Toyota will solve its problems and regain its reputation for quality vehicles. I believe in globalization as long as it helps the nation, as Haier's purchase of Maytag probably would have. My own vehicle, a 2001 Ford Ranger pickup, is manufactured by a global company that has overcome quality problems of the past and also avoided the bailouts of Chrysler and GM.
So, despite the continuing Toyota problems, I recommend Maynard's book for its insights into the positive side of globalization.
About the author
Micheline Maynard is the Senior Business Correspondent at the New York Times, and the author of the acclaimed book, The End of Detroit. The recipient of the 2009 Nathanial Nash award for excellence in business journalism, she has written for USA Today and U.S. News and World Report, and appears regularly on CNBC and NPR.
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BOOK REVIEW: 'The Selling of the American Economy' Explores Impact of Foreign Companies -- Including Toyota -- on U.S. Economy, Especially Manufacturing
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
Toyota is in the midst of its biggest quality crisis ever, which is somewhat unfortunate for the latest book on the auto industry by New York Times senior business correspondent Micheline Maynard, "The Selling of the American Economy: How Foreign Companies Are Remaking the American Dream" (Broadway Business, a division of Random House, 272 pages, $26.00).
The widening recall crisis facing the Japanese auto giant -- a truly global company with a big manufacturing big presence in the U.S. and more than two dozen other nations -- reveals the story behind the story: a company famous for its quality reputation that is also infamous for its inept crisis management handling of recalls involving sudden acceleration and now problems with brakes in its halo Prius model.
Maynard's book came out late in October, well before the latest revelations of problems with many models of Toyotas, and -- to be fair to her, much of the book deals with three other foreign companies in the U.S.: Tata of India, Haier of China and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), a French-German firm that manufactures helicopters in Mississippi. Also to be fair to her, she discusses the quality control problems of Toyota that antedated the latest ones.
Still, Maynard, who calls her book the continuation of a previous book on the American auto industry, "The End of Detroit," comes across all too often as a cheerleader for Toyota. She drives a Prius and lives in Ann Arbor, the Berkeley of Michigan, an upscale community home to the University of Michigan and a far cry from the gritty streets of Detroit.
Maynard argues that despite the lingering xenophobia that colors American perception of foreign-owned companies, foreign investments are actually an overwhelmingly positive force. Not only do they create thousands of jobs and pump billions of dollars into national and local economies, she says, they reinvigorate and strengthen communities, foster innovation and diversity in the marketplace, and teach Americans new ways to live and work.
In the manner of her Times colleague Louis Uchitelle ("The Disposable American", Knopf, 2006, for my review: http://archives.huntingtonnews.net/columns/060521-kinchen-review.html) Maynard presents us with moving stories of workers whose lives have been transformed by the arrival of companies like Toyota, Airbus, and Tata. She also interviewed many government officials, including Michigan's Canadian-born governor, Jennifer Granholm, who have fought -- often against the will of their supporters -- to lure foreign companies to their communities and states. She also obtained a rare interview with Toyota's new president, Akio Toyoda, who has just apologized to one and all for the recalls and the damage to Toyota's reputation for building quality vehicles.
Akio Toyoda on Friday, Feb. 5, 2010 held a press conference, two long weeks since the U.S. gas pedal safety recall was announced. Toyoda tried to rescue the situation by apologizing for the inconvenience to customers around the world. The company ascribes the alleged brake problems to customers misunderstanding the feeling of the ABS braking system and says that only the 2009 model Prius is involved. Since January, the company has fixed the software so that the ABS responds more quickly.
Observers have said that the apology is too little and too late, that Toyota -- and Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder, who was named president in 2009 -- still haven't gotten the need for a full-bore crisis management effort, on the order of the Tylenol recall. TV commercials apologizing for the slip in quality were rushed into production and even use sincere black and white -- you know it's sincere if it's in B&W -- images of past Toyotas and past customers at a dealership in Hollywood, CA.
As the cliche goes, only time will tell if Toyota will regain its stellar reputation. Its operation in Putnam County, West Virginia, which manufactures engines, has long been one of the firm's best operations and apparently has nothing to do with the problems involved in the recalls. Still, like all the other plants in the U.S., it's affected by the halt in Toyota production.
What does "Buy American" mean anymore, when Maynard's own publisher is owned by Germans (Bertelsmann), when the iconic Eight O'Clock coffee (my day starts with their Hazelnut flavor!) is owned by Tata of Mumbai, India, which also bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford? Haier was thwarted in its attempt to buy Maytag, Maynard writes, losing out to Whirlpool of my native state of Michigan, which quickly shut down Maytag's Iowa plants, shifting manufacturing overseas. Haier is a successful vendor to Walmart, which demands high quality from its suppliers.
How about Chrysler, along with General Motors forced into bankruptcy? Fiat, of Turin, Italy, is bailing out one of our oldest and most iconic automakers, not out of altruism, but to gain access to Chrysler's extensive dealer network. If Americans can accept the view that Fiat's notorious quality control problems of the past ("Fix It Again, Tony" or "Feeble Italian Attempt at Transportation" is what many Americans think Fiat stands for) are ancient history, Chrysler may soon have the fuel-efficient cars that Americans want.
Nestle, an American icon? It's based in Switzerland. Budweiser, which commands more than half of the American beer market, is now owned by a foreign company (I only hope that some day Budweiser would taste like Stella Artois, a premium beer from inBev). In 2008 Anheuser-Busch sold the majority of their stock to Belgian-Brazilian beer giant InBev, to create the largest brewing company in the world.
Maynard mentions tiny Buffalo, West Virginia, where Toyota makes engines and how its employees come from 27 of the 55 counties in the Mountain State. She also tells fo the revitalization of Georgetown, KY, just north of Lexington, and how Toyota's massive plant there has brought revitalized Georgetown's dying downtown.
Let me be a cheerleader for a moment, something I just accused Maynard of: I hope that Toyota will solve its problems and regain its reputation for quality vehicles. I believe in globalization as long as it helps the nation, as Haier's purchase of Maytag probably would have. My own vehicle, a 2001 Ford Ranger pickup, is manufactured by a global company that has overcome quality problems of the past and also avoided the bailouts of Chrysler and GM.
So, despite the continuing Toyota problems, I recommend Maynard's book for its insights into the positive side of globalization.
About the author
Micheline Maynard is the Senior Business Correspondent at the New York Times, and the author of the acclaimed book, The End of Detroit. The recipient of the 2009 Nathanial Nash award for excellence in business journalism, she has written for USA Today and U.S. News and World Report, and appears regularly on CNBC and NPR.
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