Does the U.S. automobile industry have a future? Can General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler come back? Some might argue that the best days for these companies are past, that market, consumer, and product trends — and the industry's own mistakes in dealing with them — have inexorably swept these manufacturers aside and that the future of the automotive business lies with a different lineup of global automotive companies.
These arguments are not without merit. Detroit has made plenty of mistakes and bad deals, ranging from inattentiveness to quality, to demographic and product misjudgment, to expensive contracts with unions. The federal government's recent bailout, moreover, simply underscores the problems and rewards bad behavior.
But these arguments may miss an important point. At the root of it all, the automotive industry is in the throes of a huge global transformation that will redefine its relationships with buyers and how it partners, produces vehicles, and uses advanced technology to do business in an industry structured very differently than it has been. In other words, Detroit faces a huge new opportunity.
And there are organizations that are thinking very deeply and creatively about this opportunity. Two of them are IBM and Deloitte. In a paper titled "Automotive 2020," IBM says that the auto market is undergoing significant changes in manufacturing, purchasing, distribution, and how vehicles are serviced.