Toyota is routinely referred to as a Japanese company. But the executives driving the company’s U.S. success are as American as apple pie.
Business
Trump Hands Detroit a ‘Belching Emissions’ Bailout
President Trump believes relaxing federal fuel economy standards will help GM and Ford. President Biden believed billions in federal incentives and tougher mandates would make them more competitive.
GM and Ford shouldn’t be relying on changing political regimes to determine their business strategies. Toyota and Hyundai don’t have that luxury.
In-N-Out Burger: Capitalism Grilled to Perfection
This week marked the 56th anniversary of economist Milton Friedman’s seminal capitalism manifesto in The New York Times Magazine, which declared that the primary responsibility of corporate executives is to make money for their shareholders, while obeying the law and society’s basic ethical customs. Wall Street enthusiastically embraced Friedman’s doctrine…
Mary Barra’s Rolling Cineplexes
The culture at General Motors under Mary Barra’s more than 12 years of leadership has been to always be smarter by half. The company’s privacy scandal, which garnered a formal rebuke from the FTC and a $12.75 million civil penalty in California and sparked dozens of class-action lawsuits, is but…
Built Ford Tough: The Fords Fire Back at Trump
Donald Trump picked a fight with Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy picked one with Ford Motor Co.
Neither Ford responded by lying down.
The power of standing up to bullies.
General Motors to Canada: Kiss Our Corporate Derrière
Canadians have focused their trade anger on President Trump. They’d be wise to also consider their treatment by General Motors.
The Offshoring of Big Blue: How IBM Became India’s IBM
IBM once represented the pinnacle of American engineering and managerial excellence. Today, it employs more people in India than in the United States and ranks among the S&P 500’s “Low-Wage 100.”
Its CEO, Arvind Krishna, still gives the company a distinctively American influence, hauling in the largest compensation package in the Low-Wage 100 at $38.0 million, or 765 times the company’s median pay of $49,630.
‘Hannah Montana’: GM’s Chief People Reduction Officer
Reports that General Motors has adopted a controversial employee-ranking system that Microsoft, Ford, Goodyear, and other companies abandoned years ago have triggered widespread criticism.
Meet Mary Barra’s Montana ranch hand overseeing GM’s HR practices.
Disrupting Uber: A Blueprint for Democratic Socialists
Silicon Valley sold Uber as a technology revolution.
A recent Government Accountability Office report documents it has become the new poster corporation for taxpayer subsidized low-wage labor.
Some thoughts on how Democratic Socialists could disrupt the company that best embodies the excesses of unfettered capitalism.
Uber’s Tony West and The Passing of #MeToo
Remember #MeToo?
A New York Times investigation found that female lawyers representing Uber questioned women suing the company over alleged sexual assaults about their clothing, drinking, childhood trauma, sexual histories, and even whether they were wearing underwear on the night they were assaulted.
The executive ultimately responsible for Uber’s legal strategy is Tony West, the former senior Obama Justice Department official who oversaw the DOJ’s Office on Violence Against Women and later played an influential role in Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign.