

Engineers Rule: Honda and its culture of engineering - tc
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2006/0904/112.html

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fbbwsa
allowing smart people creative freedom seems to solve so many problems that it
blows my mind its not more common.

as far as i can tell, thats the thesis behind google's 20% time. i think its
even cooler that Honda encourages this behavior and that system is so
intrinsic to their culture that they don't even use it as a major selling
point to potential employees. just business as usual.

innovation seems to be so rarely rewarded in stiff corporate environments and
thats a damn shame.

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krschultz
It just requires good engineers, and there is a distribution in the quality of
engineers just like every other profession.

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msluyter
The "HP Way" used to be somewhat like this, didn't it?

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ars
"Engineers have built a contraption of water heater size that strips hydrogen
out of natural gas while burning the carbon to provide heat for the home."

Ok, now that's just silly. Why not just burn the methane directly in the car
and skip the multiple steps?

Hydrogen is a terrible choice as a fuel, it's very hard to store, and has a
poor energy to volume ratio.

I should point out they did also create a methane car, and solar electrolysis,
so I'm not really complaining about them.

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nazgulnarsil
it sounds like hyperbole, but I honestly believe there are two types of people
in this world. engineers and everyone else. a smart country would put the
engineers in charge and reap the windfall of profits.

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hugh
Interestingly, the only country I can think of off the top of my head with an
engineer "in charge" is Iran. I don't think Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a great
example of how a country should be run.

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razzmataz
Angela Merkel, the chancellor in Germany is a physicist.

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hugh
More of a quantum chemist, though I realize this is a distinction most people
who aren't theoretical solid-state physicists are unlikely to care about.

Margaret Thatcher also had a chemistry background (though only a Bachelors,
unlike Merkel's PhD).

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sown
i wanna work at honda :(

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gaius
Honda have a series of TV ads (here in the UK anyway) that don't seem to be
about any one particular product. There's a chap with a moustache who sings
_to dream, an impossible dream_ (don't know the actual name of the song) while
operating various Honda technologies, motorbikes to hot air balloons. They
seem to be investing considerably in getting the message out that they are a
company where good people can do great stuff, rather than just selling things.

~~~
aditya
This is my favorite Honda ad of all time.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2VCfOC69jc>

Lots of neat innovative processes/thinking coming out of Japanese carmakers, I
wonder how GM, etc. went down the unproductivity path...

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kingkongrevenge
This ignores the possibility that GM and Ford management have been perfectly
rational in opting not to make major capital investments in their auto lines.
The finance guys made A LOT of money at GM with GMAC and several big non-auto
deals. It's perhaps a bit naive to spin this tale where GM would be doing very
well if only they had been obsessive about engineering.

<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122669746125629365.html>

GM and Ford's apparent neglect of their US car lines makes perfect sense if
you come to the conclusion that there's massive global overcapacity in car
manufacturing and the unionized US workforce could never compete anyway. It's
early yet to say Honda will even be a winner in the next 10 years. Every two
bit country in the world is subsidizing a domestic car industry. My wild guess
is it will be close to impossible to make decent profits and smart management
would exit the business.

DIGITAL was another company known for technical prowess and a focus on
engineering. They got eaten for lunch by the wheeler-dealers.

~~~
Retric
Honda makes money building cars in the US. Industry's with large upfront
capital outlays tend to have a fairly constant and positive ROI for the most
efficient participants. Because people don't spend a billion+ to enter the
market if the odds of a positive ROI are poor.

