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Finally, executives at Ford have seen the light -- or so they say.
Tweet Share on Facebook September 15, 2006 CommentIn its third big restructuring announcement in three years–and its first under new CEO Alan Mulally–Ford says it plans sweeping changes to make the automaker competitive again and return it to profitability. There will be huge numbers of job cuts, painful downsizing, revamped plans to build hot cars, and the discontinuation of sluggish models.
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At HP, a scandal that's good for investors
Tweet Share on Facebook September 12, 2006 CommentOh, how the press revels in embarrassments like the boardroom-spying scandal at Hewlett-Packard. Myself included. Yet no matter how damaging the brouhaha is to HP's image, investors seem quite pleased with the way the whole matter has played out.
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Hewlett-Packard's pretext for lying
Tweet Share on Facebook September 7, 2006 CommentHas Donald Rumsfeld been running Hewlett-Packard? The unfolding boardroom scandal at the tech giant sounds like one of the Pentagon brawls between the autocratic defense secretary and his equally hard-nosed generals: There's a big dispute over strategy. A dissident unhappy with the organization's decisions leaks his gripes to the press. That triggers a witch hunt, complete with shady tactics that raise tensions to the boiling point. The ensuing protest resignation of a senior official is papered over with world-class euphemisms and obfuscation.
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Bill Ford: the self-removing CEO
Tweet Share on Facebook September 6, 2006 CommentSo Bill Ford has shown himself the door. While Wall Street is busy analyzing the merits of his replacement as CEO of Ford Motor Co.--Alan Mulally, a 37-year veteran of Boeing--it is well worth spending a moment to examine the spectacle of a well-known American CEO voluntarily handing the reins to somebody else.
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The next Internet gold rush
Tweet Share on Facebook August 28, 2006 CommentAre you wikiliterate? If not, start studying!
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Your space, not mine
Tweet Share on Facebook August 17, 2006 CommentI want an online social network! You know, a group of friends with whom I can electronically share music and pictures and whimsical moment-by-moment observations. I'm only 40, after all. Hey! That's not too old to enjoy music and pictures. Plus, my 9- and 7-year-old kids keep me up to speed on all the latest online developments. So I'm hip.
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Our heat wave is a cool day in Iraq
Tweet Share on Facebook August 2, 2006 CommentGosh, it's hot! Haven't you heard? Temps in New York City have crested at 100, with the mayor urging anybody who feels nauseated to get to a hospital. In sweltering Chicago, there has been the predictable evacuation of thousands from high-rise ovens after the power failed on the South Side. Several consecutive triple-digit days in California have been blamed for 140 deaths, with average temperatures in Los Angeles averaging 6 degrees higher than normal. America is so hot you'd think it's Iraq.
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General Motors' two-degree turnaround
Tweet Share on Facebook July 28, 2006 CommentRick Wagoner might have been boasting too soon. When General Motors recently announced second-quarter earnings that surprised and impressed Wall Street, the CEO crowed, "Conventional wisdom is that you can't turn a ship as big as GM around quickly. We aim to prove that conventional wisdom wrong."
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Detroit blows more smoke on hybrids
Tweet Share on Facebook July 3, 2006 CommentSo now that hybrids have enjoyed their moment in the sun, the obligatory backlash seems to be forming. Ford Motor Co., struggling to return to profitability, recently backed away from its bold, less-than-year-old plan to build 250,000 hybrids a year by 2010.
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Why E-mail doesn't bring happiness: A tech guru confesses
Tweet Share on Facebook June 20, 2006 CommentN.R. Murthy tells a vaguely amusing joke. It's worth listening to, since Murthy is chairman of the Indian info-tech juggernaut Infosys and one of the world's leading technologists.
It goes like this: An American do-gooder goes to Africa and sees an African man loafing on the beach. He implores the man, "Hey, you should get a job! Make some money!"
"Why?" the man asks.
"Because you can buy a nice house, and get a nice car, and go on a nice vacation."
"Why do I want to go on a nice vacation?"
"So you can sit on the beach and relax!"
"But I'm already sitting on the beach and relaxing."
