I met Michael Dunne, emerging market consultant extraordinaire, during the Datsun launch in Chennai India two months ago. At that time, Dunne was still a free agent, and working on a car shopping site in Indonesia. Now, he is head of GM’s Indonesia operations. We discussed the three essential data points that help automakers identify a growth market. Then I asked Michael whether the car market in India would grow as fast as that in China, and Michael said: “Probably not.”
Here is why. [ There is more … ]
The RenCen Commentaries: Background and Analysis
When Bertel first told me he had traced a large numbers of comments at The Truth About Cars to I.P numbers owned by General Motors, the revelation didn’t immediately floor me. TTAC has long prided itself on its knowledgeable and industry-savvy commenters, and various industry insiders have been known to leave comments there. On a certain level, getting comments from inside any automaker is simply a sign of TTAC’s influence in the industry.
But as the scope and specifics of Bertel’s findings were made clear to me, I quickly came to the conclusion that they deserved a public hearing. After all, the evidence suggests that multiple employees of a publicly-owned company anonymously trolled and shilled on a critical website, all from company headquarters. If nothing else, people seem confused about the ethical complexities of online advocacy, and a conversation about the issue appears in order.
[ There is more … ]