David Cole
David Cole
looking needed today
This is the fundamental restructuring that they have needed for a very long time. I would say things are looking a lot better today than they were yesterday.
basically community concerned decidedly financial focused looking meet profit settle
What they're really looking at is the long-term implications of this. In the past, there was a decidedly short-term mentality, and basically what (GM) would say is we'll settle so we can meet our quarterly profit projections. That's different today. The financial community is concerned about the short-term return?but what they're focused on is the long-term profitability.
interested looking quick
Wagoner isn't interested in a quick turnaround; he's looking long term.
giving great sort
It's sort of like giving yourself a great big garage.
chemicals critical drop eight mix sort
It's sort of a critical ingredient. It's like when you mix eight or 10 chemicals and nothing happens. Then you drop this in and all of a sudden, boom, you get an explosion.
aware change cost driven everybody faces per plays problem produced profitable three vehicle
Every one of the Big Three faces a problem right now of about $2,000 to $2,500 per vehicle produced cost disadvantage. If that plays out over time, they're all dead. It's change or die. Everything is driven by a profitable business. If you can't be profitable, you can't be in business. That is, I think, recognition that everybody is aware of.
active average costs employee medicare savings
The average costs of an active employee is $130,000 a year, and the average cost for a retiree before Medicare is about $50,000. The savings are enormous.
bad certainly news
The bad news certainly isn't going to end for a while.
auto educated future industry jobs workers younger
The auto industry of the future will be a younger and more educated workforce. High-paying jobs for educated workers are not going away.
additional gives
They've really outgrown their Georgetown facility. This gives them a little additional capacity.
alignment capacity create sales
They've got to create alignment between capacity and sales volume.
benefit certainly chance competitor cuts enter factory field hot incentives lose maybe move price stay volume
There's the thought that if this is going to be so hot, why not price it higher? But if you do, maybe you lose volume and it doesn't stay hot as long, or you have to move to incentives and price cuts sooner, or you give a competitor a chance to enter the field sooner. The dealers certainly are making money. But the factory doesn't benefit from that.
add average cost costs dollars easier killer less number players structure trying
The new players have a cost structure that is on the average of about 2,500 dollars less a vehicle. That's a killer number when you're trying to get competitive. It's a lot easier to add costs than to take out costs.
opportunity refresh
It's really an opportunity to refresh the organization,