Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog: Deming, lean thinking, innovation, customer focus, continual improvement, six sigma.
June 28, 2006
Our Policy is to Stick Our Heads in the Sand

Conversation with Boston Volkswagen by Paul Graham

I recently looked into getting a new car. The Kafkaesque conversation that resulted would have been funny if it were happening to someone else. If only Volkswagen could redesign the sales process to be as good as their cars….

For me it did happen to someone else so it is funny :-) However, I run across similar thinking and “customer service” and then I don’t find it as funny. The failure to failure to adapt to a changing world (the internet is here to stay folks) is amazing. Most companies would benefit from just adapting to the changing world without elaborate innovation plans. Innovation is great, but challenging. Don’t ignore the possible improvements short of innovation.

It seems to me obvious the VW response is that of an organization trying to hold on to an outdated model of behaviour. Toyota needs to do a great deal of work in the dealership area too. At least they realise that they do and are trying: Park Place Lexus won a 2005 Baldrige award.

2 Responses to “Our Policy is to Stick Our Heads in the Sand”

  1. Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog » Too Much Stuff Says:

    Buy less stuff. Save more. Not a complicated plan, along the lines of: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Paul Graham posts excellent essays online. His latest is another good one - Stuff…

  2. Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Some Good IT Business Ideas Says:

    “In most companies the IT department is an expensive bottleneck. Getting them to make you a simple web form could take months. Enter Wufoo. Now if the marketing department wants to put a form on the web, they can do it themselves in 5 minutes…”

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