Let's hope they can get Honda back on track...

I saw the NSX in Detroit and they are committed to bulding it...(VERY NICE!!!!)

Acura's design snobs still insist on shoving that stupid grill beak in our face... Does anyone like it beside the designer's themselves???

Acura has toned down the STUPID grill, but it is still THERE costing them sales daily...

They even stuck it on the new NSX, lets hope they sober up by production time and put a worth while grill on the flagship and the rest of

the Acura line...

The machines are great, 90% of the design is great, but the beak grill should go...

The article is so CORRECT that none of these guys ever worked for Mr Honda...

Do you think any of these guys would be able to commit to building a private jet???

I'm hoping Honda can turn things around, but the rest of the industry is NOT lagging behind them anymore...

I'm sure Hondas will always build good cars, but they have lost the leading edge GREAT car for the price status and sporty edge image...

Maybe Honda could get some of their excellent DIESEL ENGINES certified for US market use, even if they need DEF...

Good Luck Honda you can do it!!!

 

I've met hundreds of fellow accountants over 40 years and never once have I seen even one of them count a bean.
This is discrimination, plain and simple. Rob and I are going to consult with legal counsel.

 

^Doesn't it look better this way?

 

Yes. Let's hope they get rid of that fugly beak looking nose. One of my friends who works for the local Acura dealership says everyone there calls it the "guillotine" nose, which I think is a pretty accurate description.

 

Yes. Let's hope they get rid of that fugly beak looking nose. One of my friends who works for the local Acura dealership says everyone there calls it the "guillotine" nose, which I think is a pretty accurate description.
[/quote]

Hey, they copied my garage colors.

 

I agree. Not once.

I think that there must be a special position at all of the automakers with the title of "Bean Counter". Their sole responibility is to take the blame for all of the failed efforts and stupidity of all of the rest of the company. It must make things much easier on everyone else. Whenever a manager, designer, engineer, marketer or executive makes a stupid decision or creates a product to be ashamed of, the bean counter is there to take all of the blame.

The truth of the matter is that it was the planners, designers, marketers and engineers at Honda who led the company into its funk. It was the planners who chose to cheapen the car in an effort to remain competitive in a down market, and the marketers who predicted that the marketplace would want cheaper cars not better cars. The engineers fell asleep, and the designers had nightmares, sketched them when they woke up, and brought the sketches into the design studios. But, blame the bean counters. This way you can spare the real guilty parties of any embarrassment.

 

Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business [Hardcover]

Book Description
Publication Date: June 9, 2011

"It's time to stop the dominance of the number-crunchers, living in their perfect, predictable, financially-projected world (who fail, time and again), and give the reins to the 'product guys'...those with vision and passion for the customers and their product or service."

When Bob Lutz got into the auto business in the early 1960s, CEOs knew that if you captured the public's imagination with innovative car design and top quality craftsmanship, the money would follow. The "car guys" held sway, and GM dominated with bold, creative leadership and iconic brands like Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, GMC, and Chevrolet.

But then GM's leadership began to put their faith in numbers and spreadsheets. Determined to eliminate the "waste" and "personality worship" of the bygone creative leaders, and maximize profitability, management got too smart for its own good. With the bean counters firmly in charge, carmakers, and much of American industry, lost their single-minded focus on product excellence and their competitive advantage. Decline soon followed.

In 2001, General Motors hired Lutz out of retirement with a mandate to save the company by making great cars again. As vice chairman, he launched a war against the penny-pinching number-crunchers who ran the company by the bottom line, and reinstated a focus on creativity, design, and cars and trucks that would satisfy GM customers.

After emerging from bankruptcy in 2009, GM is finally back on track thanks in part to its embrace of Lutz's philosophy, with acclaimed new models like the Chevrolet Volt, Cadillac CTS, Chevrolet Equinox, and Buick LaCrosse.

Lutz's common-sense lessons, combined with a generous helping of fascinating anecdotes, will inspire readers in any industry. As he writes:
"It applies in any business. Shoe makers should be run by shoe guys, and software firms by software guys, and supermarkets by supermarket guys. With the advice and support of their bean counters, absolutely, but with the final word going to those who live and breathe the customer experience. Passion and drive for excellence will win over the computer-like, dispassionate, analysis- driven philosophy every time."

 

Funny thing is that the bean counters that you are talking about are the managers, both mid level and departmental who make the decisions, not the accounting departments. The accountants are the historians, they record what has happened, the managers (planners, engineers, designers, marketers, etc.) make the decisions and cause what is going to happen.

Should car companies be run by "car guys" as your article presumes? Well maybe, but the problem is when the car guys get to run the company, they stop being car guys and become the managers who make the mistakes that we like to blame on the bean counters.

 

Just say'n.... that's the car business. I don't disagree. I know where I worked there was what we called the MBA mentality that ignored the real business to focus on what they considered the target. They spent endless dollars on meaningless stuff like changing a nearly 100 year old (but modified) logo which impacted every building, every document, every billing, every ad, every sign, every truck, every car, while the core business was going down hill for lack of funds. Was it an out-dated logo? No way. Ironically by todays standards it was way ahead of its time and was replaced by a really nothing-logo. But, hey, I've got lots of stories where the bean counters ran the company into the ground so they could impress Wall Street or where ever. It didn't work. In the end, they all lost their jobs and the company returned to its core but not until the stock lost 2/3 rds of its value.

 

They're called program managers.
Their job is to bring a product in on time.
A like tale from my past.
A previous employer was founded by 4 guys, but one was the engineering guru.We'll cal him Ted.
He carried them for 15 years on his back until they went public.
We were successful, largely because of his particular technical acumen for understanding the product we sold.
As we grew we started hiring program managers to run the development and keep them on schedule and cost.
One was called Chris. Chris held a product review and invited Ted.
Ted ripped the product in a couple areas that the product was lacking functionality or had un-needed junk.
Some of these things would have grossly and adversely affected the schedule.
Chris took it in stride, he simply but discreetly made sure the Ted never got invited back to any of the planning meetings.

He delivered on time and on budget but it was crap. Ted was eventually brought in and spent 2 years cleaning the mess.

that's how bean counters do it.