Comments on: Disruptive Business Model: Penske Plans for Saturn

By: jseeley

jseeley — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:16:12 +0000

Well to me its not surprising that they would outsource their manufacturing. It’s probably way cheaper to have someone else worry about making the product and just focus on other aspects like marketing. Maybe focusing on just the marketing and design will allow the company to be able to make a product that people enjoy more and be able to improve their sells as well. But in the end there is always that issue with how well the outsourced company is at making the product. They could have an awesome marketing plan, but have a shit product which will fail miserably. I personally don’t like anything that is made by Apple, from their IPods too their computers, but it has nothing to do with the quality of the manufacturing, so maybe this plan will work.

By: Kristin Crowson

Kristin Crowson — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:11:47 +0000

Perhaps they will do well with the marketing. However, jobs that could have gone towards the manufacturing of the cars will be lost due to the outsourcing. It may be a good move for the company in general due to it being cheaper (maybe) but those who were working in the factories for manufacturing will not be too happy.

By: John Jacob Jingle-Heimmer Schmidt

John Jacob Jingle-Heimmer Schmidt — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 04:22:04 +0000

hacked.

By: ablack

ablack — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 23:35:59 +0000

what the heck is wrong with the front page?

By: melmalik

melmalik — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:31:01 +0000

I think that the U.S automakers have learned about the importance of the quality of their cars the hard way, and now especially in this economy is not the time on gambling that someone else would build your cars and still maintain the quality you want. I think that Saturn’s new owner should consider doing the opposite, as in he should design and manufacture the cars and outsource the marketing.

By: Stephen Parkhill

Stephen Parkhill — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:04:54 +0000

All I can say is good luck [sarcastic tone]. I’ve worked for Bosch, which is the largest privately owned automotive part supplier in the world and I know first hand how difficult outsourcing can be. Over the past few years at Bosch there’s been a huge push to make more components in house because outsourcing is expensive. Not only that, it is incredibly challenging to deal with manufactures in other countries that don’t speak English as their native language. Coordinating the huge number of manufacturers required to produce an entire vehicle is going to be next to impossible. My guess is it’ll never work…

By: Jason Jerger

Jason Jerger — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:52:44 +0000

Apple is obviously an extremely successful company, but I’m not sure if you can use the same business tactics for cars as you can for computers. It’s a very interesting tactic and it’ll be interesting on how it will all pan out.

By: mrambo

mrambo — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:04:36 +0000

The outsourcing deal really isn’t a surprise because there are many companies that have outsourced their manufacturing to other countries. That and since he doesn’t really have a manufacturing plant he has the option to take it to a cheaper location. It’s pretty crazy that he’s buying it for 100-200 million though. Granted this estimation wasn’t given by GM or Penske so of course it’s not official.

By: Saad Ahmed

Saad Ahmed — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 18:44:32 +0000

Very interesting idea. Following Appels business plan might prove to be really successful. Now they can focus more on the design and the marketing which they have to do. This just means more hard work in those areas.

By: apoplar

apoplar — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:08:17 +0000

A very differnt approach for an automaker. Integrating a buisness model from Apple to build cars is going to be a big undertaking. In theory the cost should be reduced greatly cordination it is another thing…