Unfortunately i feel it necessary to correct the talking heads on US news shows, who continue to spread their misinformed opinions about the Detroit automakers. These include Mark Haines of CNBC, George Will and Aryana Huffington. The fact that these people continues to demand new executives for the Big 3, arguing that you need outsiders to fix the problem.

Well the outsiders are there at 2 of the 3 companies. The people who own and run Chrysler are vulture capital group Cerberus Capital, they’ve put Bob Nardelli, formerly of GE and Home Depot in charge. Whether you like Nardelli or not, he’s not a car guy nor is he from Detroit. Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally, was brought to Detroit from Seattle, where he ran manufacturing for the largest exporter in the US, Boeing Aerospace. Mulally has been tasked with restructing the company, which generally means cutting manufacturing and operational costs. He’s solely responsible for reversing Ford’s biggest marketing mistake since the Edsel, the retiring of the Taurus brand name. So 2 of the 3 companies are led by outsiders, non-auto, non-detroit guys, yet we should fire them?

You may ask if 2 men can make a difference? Maybe, but there are more new hires that make a difference. Here is a list:

Chrysler -
Jim Press - President, vice chairman. Former COO of Toyota NA, a 37 year Toyota Veteran.
Sigmund Huber Supplier Relations, former General Manager Toyota Engineering and Manufacturing in North America.

Ford -
JC Mays - Divisional VP, former Audi Designer, vp at SHR perpetual management
James D. Farley - Group Vice President, Marketing and Communications. Was Group Vice President and General Manager of Lexus, before leading Lexus, group vice president of Toyota Division marketing.

GM -
Well this is not a company that has brought in outsiders to held turn the tide, they are the exception of the 3. The old guard at GM did put the guys in place who had succeeded in Europe and the ROW. Europe was one of the GM’s more successful and most competitive markets.

So why don’t the media and the US Congress seem to know this?

I was happy to have been contacted by Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold for my opinion about how the financial crisis was effecting the offset market.

his article was published today: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/05/AR2008100502518_2.html

While I am happy to quoted, unfortunately he didn’t mention my company 4Offsets.com or link to out site.

Here are my words wisdom

“People still come to the site, but where you used to get people signing up [for offsets] every day, now you’d be lucky to get a few people a week,” said Fred Weiss, a small-time offset seller based in Ann Arbor, Mich., who sends customers stickers that say, “Carbon Neutral Vehicle.” Apparently that isn’t as important now.

“Who cares about the environment? Am I going to have a house next week?” he imagined would-be customers saying.

Well maybe I’m on my way to fame and fortune, but I think it will take a bit more before i join the talking heads of the US media.

Can’t Get Enough of Me? ;>) BUY MY BOOK!

The folks in the US media are doing it again with their “shock” and “dismay” of the use of 2 girls to sing and lip sync a solo performance at the Olympic opening ceremonies.

The Chinese, want a perfect show, decided that the best singer was not as “visually perfect”, that is pretty/cute enough to appear on TV. They decided to use a 2nd girl to lip sync while the first girl sang.

While this is offensive to all of us who aren’t pretty and i count myself one of them, it isn’t that surprising. This has been done in hollywood musicals for years. so the media outrage at this unthinkable behavior is either based on ignorance of the entertainment industry or outright decite.

Why not put the spin this way: 2 girls got to share a moment where they performed for, literally billions for people around the world, rather than just one?

Hat’s off to NBC’s Andrea Joyce for the digusting interview of the US Olympic Women’s Gymnastics Team and in particular the 1 on 1 interview with Alicia Sacramone.

How appropriate to continually asked her how it felt about….

1 what went thru your head when you made this mistake?

2. how did you feel when you realized your mistake cost your teamates a gold medal?

3. it seems like your mistake rattled your teamates, what did you say to them after you came back from the balance beam, where you fell?

4. How did you prepare for the floor excercises, that you made 2 errors on?

5. What was your the feeling about being the captain of the team and …..

these are not exact quotes, but they might as well be.

I spent the last few days chatting with a business associate about psychology and human development. My first bachelor’s degree is in Pyschology. Those discussions and some recent stories i’ve read about treating earthquake victims in china and helping people in trauma (physical, emotional/mental). Current thinking seems to be: the most effective way to overcome come the emotional trauma is ask what they need (within reason) not to ask them to replay the event and discuss its implications. Replaying the bad times often results in a reinfliction of pain.

While Andrea Joyce’s job isn’t to be trauma counselor, she could have let Scaramone just talk about her feelings and experiences. Instead Joyce work hard to seem like mike wallace interviewing some tin horn dictator.

Gold Medal for the Most offensive interview: NBC and Andrea Joyce. Contrast that with the way Meridith Viero asked the same questions on the Today show this next morning.