The emerging “automotive ecosystem” of the future may not be particularly kind to Detroit.
Not because the likes of this town’s automakers aren’t changing. But because they’re not changing fast enough to blunt the competitive onslaught from high-tech Silicon Valley heavyweights loaded with cash and a knack for delivering high returns on invested capital, says a new report from Alix Partners, a global consultancy.
And because Detroit’s challengers for next-generation transportation are less burdened by their past, the expectations of their employees, the conventions of leadership. Five years after Tesla Inc. introduced electric cars with a center-stack offering over-the-air upgrades and flat screens reminiscent of Apple products, “no other major automaker has moved to match the system.”
That’s not an encouraging sign. The emerging ecosystem will reward “horizontal” management of partners and suppliers, not “vertical” structures ostensibly intended to protect core assets – and to deliver the added benefit of protecting employment.
Read more of the original article at The Detroit News.
