The Auto Makers Broken Snooze Button

(With apologies to ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat)

If I remember my Bible story correctly, back in the day, Pharaoh and those crazy Egyptians were basking in the Mediterranean sun, having a grand old time. Only problem, Pharaoh was having some sleep issues and Ambien wasn’t invented yet. He had some crazy dreams of fat and skinny cows, ripe and withered corn and so on. While reading an early draft of ‘In the Belly of the Beast’, he heard about a kid in lockup who was good at dream interpretation. Enter Joseph…

Joseph was called to Pharaoh’s trendy digs to do his brand of dream analysis and said ‘Listen up dude – a famine is coming, so you better store up your bounty for seven years ’cause the following seven ain’t lookin’ so good!’

SPOILER ALERT!

Yep, young Joe was right. Seven years of prosperity followed by seven years of blight. Due to awesome planning, Pharaoh’s kingdom rode it out. I think Joseph went on to become a financial planner, but don’t quote me.

Let’s apply the story of Joseph to today’s situation…

Back in the early 1970′s, our energy alarm went off. We cried that there was gas rationing, we cried that OPEC countries were controlling the world’s oil. We cried that Japanese auto makers had an ‘unfair’ advantage because they had more fuel efficient cars. And after all the complaining was over and the crisis had subsided, we hit the snooze button.

The second act of our Greek tradgey was the late 70′s…the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, the hostage crisis and high inflation were the villains this time. Again, the turbulence was quelled and the snooze button took another hit.

I can go on…the cheap oil of the late 80′s and early 90′s let us hit the button again and again. Only instead of taking heed of the lessons learned and the broken promises of higher MPG cars and alternative fuels, we came up empty again and again. And why not? We made our way out of all the dog days before.

Someone was asleep at the futurist switch – the global economy was about to take hold. Remember those 2.5 billion inhabitants of the two top growing nations – China and India? Well, the alarm went off for them and instead of hitting the snooze button, they have figuratively jumped out of bed and hit the ground running.

So, what is the one of the top stories in Business Week? The Auto and Utility industries say ‘not so fast – we’re not ready!!’. Guess what guys? The snooze button is broken…wakey wakey time!!

I think Senator Gramm was speaking of those industries in need of a clue. This predicament has been coming for 35 years.

Instead of saying how long it will take, get your collective fannies in gear and get to work!

Business Week: Alternative Energy Vexes Autos and Utilities