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The GM Lesson: Old Dog, New Tricks, Whole Brain

Posted on | January 7, 2008 | No Comments

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by Andrea Learned

Just when you think a huge, long-established, traditionally-operated industry is going down the tubes completely, creativity and innovation rear their progressive heads. This time Bob Lutz, a 75-year old with years of experience in traditional industries, represents the creative angle, and General Motors ( GM), which started as the Buick Motor Car Company way back in 1902, represents the American car industry on its last legs. And, this tale has a happy ending, or at least a happier resolution for now.

According to a recent Associated Press story, left brain has been joined – and is perhaps now being guided – by right brain thinking at GM. As Lutz put it in that interview, the process for developing and designing new cars had been overly rational: “The feeling was, if we give them a nice car with lots of features, and we make it very roomy and very reliable and very functional, people will realize what a good rational purchase this is and we will get great sales. And then it didn’t happen.”

What Lutz did was add right brain aesthetics and emotion to GM’s process – just as he had, to great success, for Chrysler in the 1990s. In fact, leading industry analyst David Cole credits Lutz with creating “a huge transformation by giving designers more power early on.”

The most well-designed system of all time, the brain, works best when all parts, or both hemispheres, in that system work together efficiently. So, why shouldn’t that also apply to brands – from product design development to marketing? Maybe left brain, linear aspects take the lead in some cases, and right brain aspects drive other decisions – but the point is they are working in concert. Neglect one for the other and, woops – balance is lost, efficiency is impossible and any supposed success would be short-lived.

What I love about the GM/Lutz story:

a) A seemingly faded, behemoth from a traditional industry gets a shot in the arm and sees daylight!

b) There’s no talk of “women” per se, but you know and I know that female consumers were very much the market Lutz needed to reach to make these new models gain buzz and sell. Lutz is serving the highest customer standards.

c) “Innovation” doesn’t only come fro the young/hip. Even a 75-year old with great experience and the right mind set (using both right and left brains, that is), can bring about exciting, hopefully lasting, change.

d) Maybe there is hope for Detroit in all this?

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