New Car Buyers - Page 9 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

cRiPpLe_rOoStEr · 04-02-2016, 12:36 AM

So, the good old VW Beetle and many of its derivatives were already a good example of a modular platform too

mcrews · 04-02-2016, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

+1, except where he failed was at the next level. When he was running the whole company and not just a division, he thought coke smuggling was a good financing choice. GM's good upper management (has anyone ever written that phrase before?) kept him out of trouble.

'failing at the next level' by itself, does not meet the definition of Peter Principle.

here is the definition of Peter Principle:
The Peter principle is a concept in management theory formulated by Laurence J. Peter in which the selection of a candidate for a position is based on the candidate's performance in their current role, rather than on abilities relevant to the intended role. Thus, employees only stop being promoted once they can no longer perform effectively, and "managers rise to the level of their incompetence. In an organizational structure, assessing an employee's potential for a promotion is often based on their performance in the current job. This eventually results in their being promoted to their highest level of competence and potentially then to a role in which they are not competent, referred to as their "level of incompetence". The employee has no chance of further promotion, thus reaching their career's ceiling in an organization. ."

He DID NOT fail at while working in Pontiac or Chevy. He then left.
The peter principle cant be used in reference to his entire career w General Motors. period.
THe whole point of PP is the premise that you are PROMOTED with in an organization.

After he left, he was given(because he was successful) a GM dealership in Florida.
Which he ran successfully.
He then started his own car company. No one 'promoted' him.
He was framed for buying drugs.
WHere is the "PROMOTION TO A LEVEL OF INCOMPETENCE WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION?"

Fat Charlie · 04-03-2016, 12:10 AM

It's under your caps lock key somewhere. You must have inadvertently hit it when you edited Wikipedia's text to make the commentary appear to be part of the definition.

A good rule is not bound by, well, rules:
The laws of thermodynamics aren't simply about energy.
Murphy's laws of combat aren't actually about the military.
The Peter Principle isn't just about bureaucrats.
That's why people outside those fields know what they are.

Yes, the Peter Priniciple is simply an observation that pointy haired bosses promote people based on performance in their previous positions while disregarding their suitability for the position being promoted to. And the Bible is simply a book that you find in hotel room desks, and the Earth is mostly harmless. But what does it all mean? The whole point of the Peter Principle is not that you should be careful in your staffing choices or even have to be within an organization, it's that advancement stops because of lack of success.

Promotion is a result of success. DeLorean did very well at every level within a large company, and decided that he was therefore capable of running a whole company. If you still need to see him as being inside an institution, look to the governments and banks that give and lend money to startups even today. The Bank of America and the British government looked at his performance as a GM executive and cheerfully bankrolled his new company.

But niggling little details got him, like the need for an experienced workforce. The engineer in him looked to put his factory in a place with high unemployment so the local government would give him a sweet deal. The inexperienced CEO in him didn't realize that if everyone in the factory was new to their jobs, quality just wasn't going to be there.

The legalities of entrapment aside, smuggling coke is a bad idea. A great engineer may be confident that he has all the details worked out, but even a mediocre CEO should know enough to turn it down. Fail.

Xist · 04-03-2016, 08:22 AM

Starting a car factory in an area with high unemployment so the government gives a sweet deal?

jamesqf · 04-03-2016, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcrews

He DID NOT fail at while working in Pontiac or Chevy. He then left.

He was a part of GM management during the 1960s and 1970s, during which time GM (and the rest of the US auto industry) was a massive failure, going from essentially 100% of the domestic market to less than half today (including Japanese brands built in the US).

As for starting his own car company, seen many new DeLoreans on the road lately? Or even well-maintained used ones? If one hadn't been used in that movie, only automotive trivia fans would know of it.

I'd also point out that being able to raise the money needed to start a car company requires an entirely different skill set from being able to actually run one successfully. In fact, a good number of people have managed to raise money without any actual factory at all - Bernie Madoff comes to mind, as do the various purveyors of Silver River Oil stock :-)

Fat Charlie · 04-04-2016, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xist

Starting a car factory in an area with high unemployment so the government gives a sweet deal?

You've never seen some ratty little town give WalMart a break on property taxes for a few years so they'll build there instead of in the next town over? The British paid to build DeLorean's factory as a way to bring in jobs. It looks great on paper, but building a car isn't done on paper and you get better results if some of your workers have actually built cars before.

Frank Lee · 04-04-2016, 09:43 AM

If every H.R. department is like the one at my old employer, they truly believe the entire factory can be staffed with monkeys or interns- and compensate them accordingly. However upper management are a bunch of special snowflakes, deserving of special status and compensation.