Kirk's Market Thoughts Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Non-Tech : Kirk's Market Thoughts

COHR 134.64

+4.6%

Nov 5 3:59 PM EST

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

To: robert b furman who wrote (10457)	10/15/2020 9:31:38 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (2) of 26422

I was a consultant to Toyota. I can tell you that while they were extremely efficient in things for which they had a well defined process, they were completely lost when faced with something unexpected. I have a close friend who was a consultant at GM. It was not a place breaming with innovation. At its heart, Tesla is a technology company (HW+SW) and not an automaker. This is somewhat analogous to Amazon which should never be viewed as a retailer because they are first and foremost a technology company; retail is just what they focus their technology on. Ditto for Netflix. It's not a media company...or at least it wasn't, but that is changing now. The thing that most people misunderstand about technology is that it is a very social and cultural endeavor. You cannot just get a bunch of engineers and equipment and boast equivalency. This is not obvious at the first sight and unless someone has been intimate with high tech shops across many organizations, they will not get it. But time after time, we see that organizations who try to force the issue buy throwing money at it and hiring a bunch of engineers with the best tech so they can achieve a top place in their target industry invariably fail. This doesn't mean that Tesla will success or that big automakers will fail. But it is not going to be an easy battle for the old guards. You may want to read about how Eastman Kodak died. They were a pioneer in digital imaging and cameras. And they had a dominant position and lost of cash. But ultimately they could not transition from film to digital cameras. Contrary to the popular belief, EK did see the writing on the walls years before many analysts on Wall St. did. And they did try to pivot into digital. But it just wasn't possible for reasons that take too long to explain here. If someone is going to unseat Tesla, it will likely be one of the EV guys from China. VW may also have a chance. The rest of the industry will have to go through a very painful process to get there and their success is not guaranteed. Then again, Tesla's success is far from guaranteed as well. If I were Musk, I'd have sold a lot more shares into this market than the tiny amount he did. He should build his war chest.

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next