Toyota - Death by 1000(s) Recalls

For every company, there is a mojo that drives it to success. This is usually a soft skill above and beyond any company's IP. In business lingo, there is a fancy name for it "core competency". This core competency is what defines that company's brand identity. For Toyota, this core competency was its legendary quality system. Tomes have been written about Toyota's quality process. MBA courses tout Toyota's ultra-flexible (relative to auto industry standards) operations and how they maintain tight control over the quality of their products. Not too long ago, Toyota was the rising star that was beating the hell out of American car companies. To the extent they were idolized as America's best car brand.
But, as has been well covered in the press, recent recalls of Toyota cars has hit it in the gut. The legendary brand known for its quality has been hit by a widespread recall across most of its product line. Sure, the aggressiveness by which the NHTSA has pursued this recall smacks of political desire to level the playing field for the "American Brands". But, without resorting to mud slinging, the Toyota management has mismanaged the whole process by trying to hide issues. That is where the true tragedy lies - Toyota basked in its Roman glory and forgot its roots. Its brand loyalty has taken a hit. As a Product Manager, it is truly sad to see where the numbers become more important than customers. Sure enough, today's reports on how American companies might be benefiting from Toyota's downfall drives the point home. It is going to be an interesting case study of Toyota in days to come.

Three to Tango - SaaS, Social and Mobile

In November 2009, Salesforce.com announced Chatter as its own spin on Social Networking within a business network. In a recent update, Chatter is due to be released as a private beta to some 100 companies. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are predominantly focused on enabling C2C communication. But, it is a just a matter of time before the social network ecosystem starts overlapping with your professional network. Indeed, just today, LinkedIn announced integration with Microsoft Outlook. Xobni and Salesforce.com's Chatter, both allow updates from your extended social networks to be seen within your professional feeds. Now, throw in the whole mobile apps ecosystem, and suddenly you have a hyper-connected interactive world that exhibits the true promise of a networked world.
Due to the low barrier to entry in the SaaS space, we see tons of startups providing solutions to one problem set to make this world in cloud a better place. Where this ultimately leads to is still a big question. My sense is that we are going to see more and more fragmentation of this space before ultimately consolidating in an equilibrium where some companies would be computing power utilities powering the smaller networked applications. On the customer side, in the long term, barriers between professional and personal life would continue to fall. So, tools those allow me to organize my personal and professional information in a better way are going to evolve. Google Wave, Microsoft Outlook, Salesforce.com Chatter are trying to address this issue, but their innovation is naturally biased by their current offerings. Google Buzz is an example. A fresh new approach is required. The big mantra for consumers is going to be "any information, anywhere and anytime". Don't make me log in, don't make me visit different sites. Just hand me what I want.