Entries for October 2007

Over the past couple of months, I've driven a hybrid SUV, a truck capable of running on ethanol, a "clean diesel" sedan, and an experimental hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicle. Oh, and a few plain old gas-powered cars, too. As an auto writer, of course, I try out different types of vehicles as part of my job. But the expanding variety of technologies available to journalists represents new choices that consumers will eventually enjoy, too.

Let's say you manage a venerable but aging brand with a huge, rabidly loyal customer base. Your merchandise sells on name alone, and there's strong cash flow from a product lineup stretching back 30 years. But the growth of your enterprise has slowed, and your core customers—once the highly coveted 18-to-34-year-old demographic—are getting gray and paunchy. What's your strategy for staying relevant?

If the union walkout at General Motors lasted just two days, and the one at Chrysler wound down after a mere six hours, might Ford avoid a strike altogether?

Lots of companies have operations around the globe, but few are as multiculturally mingled as Lenovo, the company formed when China's biggest computer maker bought IBM's personal computing division in 2005. More than 1,500 Americans joined the Chinese firm's 9,000 employees, forming a new company with major hubs in China, America, Singapore, France, Japan, and India. Bill Amelio, the American CEO, lives in Singapore. Chairman Yang Yuanqing, who is Chinese, lives in Raleigh, N.C. "It's hard enough just putting two companies together," Amelio says. "Imagine doing that with different ideologies, backgrounds, and histories."