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Lenovo's efforts to increase sales in India and Brazil. Lenovo is the largest PC company in India with 15.8% market share in the first quarter of 2012. It has only 3.6% market share in Brazil and is planning to increase its market share in the Brazilian market. Its market share in China is 30%. Slowing sales in China is increasing the focus on growth in Latin America. Lenovo's head of Asia-Pacific and Latin America, Milko van Duijl says Lenovo will have to build a manufacturing presence in Brazil to be successful there. Lenovo is now the second largest in PC sales worldwide after H-P.

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Ellen Jervell describes the open and inclusive culture that as helped Norway win more medals than any other country in Winter Olympics games. Before age 11 all children participating in sports get the same prize. A large annual budget for the main Olympic organization of $23 million helps, and so does the extra leisure from the high per capita GDP of $99,558 with many high paying jobs. Of the 303 medals won by Norway 125 were in cross country skiing. 60% of Norwegians enjoy watching cross country skiing, according to a 2011 survey by newspaper Aftenposten, and Norwegians take a less competitive view of the sport. Academic ability is given first importance even in sports schools.

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Lower corporate governance standards on the NYSE and the NASDAQ stock exchanges in New York are raising concern of large investors. London and Hong Kong exchanges do not allow corporate insiders who collectively own less than half of their companies stock to exercize control through dual share structures and other mechanisms.

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The perception of Chrysler's travails from Detroit. "Like a resourceful alley cat, disrespected, starving, kicked around, but tenacious," so begins Detroiter Tom Walsh's colum on June 11, 2009, in the Detroit Free Press. Disrespected by Ford and former Chrysler manager who left at the time Daimler took over Chrysler. Its a skinnier more haggard looking Chrysler, and Fiat may do a complete makeover starting with the product line, a Fiat small car line unlike the guzzzlers Chrysler was known for like the Dodge Ram pickup.

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Marchione says in atalk at the Peterson Institute that Chrysler had alot of problems in bankruptcy that were not fixed, including not getting new powertrains and vehicles. "We're not perfect. We're going to continue to screw up." But he said that Chrysler is now doing alot less now than 6 months ago. This focus may help him deliver.

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In a speech at the Peterson Institute Marchionne says Europe has not addressed its problem of 30% overcapacity for making automobiles. He is handling two jobs one at Fiat and one at Chrysler, about which he says: "I am the only one who can guarantee this transfer. There's got to be this blood transfusion and it needs to happen at the speed of light." Within the next 24 months he sees the jobs being split up.

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Fiat chief Marchionne on a visit to Detroit to do due diligence on its deal with Chrysler, said that no one was lining up to take the deal away from Fiat. He made it clear that the deal, in which for providing its technology in small cars to Chrysler it would get a 35% stake in Chrysler, has to stand on its own two legs. For another $25 million Fiat could raise its stake to 55%. Its only other investment would be in the plant costs for building theses small cars in the USA. Fiat will not use USA government money for Fiat's operations, and only take money from Chrysler after the government is repaid, he said. For the deal to go through everyone has to make concessions, says Marchionne. The logic of the deal may rest on US government help and labor and other stakeholders concessions. In a year Fiat could be importing cars into the USA and in 30 months Fiat could be making cars in the USA.

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The government created a$5 billion fund to guarantee payments to auto parts suppliers for products shipped to car companies. This stabilizes the auto parts companies which are finding it difficult to access credit and have late payments from car companies. It ensures money for payrolls and other expenses. And autoparts companies receivables can now be sold to the fund so that thye have more liquidity. It also generates more confidence for the auto parts sector that they can survive the difficult conditions facing them and be asteady source of parts for car companies.

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Cherry's 50-50 joint venture with Fiat was setup in 2007, with plans to produce 175,000 Fiat and Alfa Romeo cars in China in 2009. Now both companies have decided to postpone the start of production.

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Consideration is a term being used in Detroit auto company marketing efforts, if a customer gives little consideration to a company or brand or if its not on his list of brands or companies to consider, then snap you are not even in the running. The customer does not even visit your dealer showrooms, and no matter how well you make your cars its not going to make a difference. It has to take a lot of neglect of customers for this sort of situation to arise, but its exactly the situation Detroits auto companies face. They are trying marketing ploys such as this one by Ford's advertising agency, but its impact is uncertain. The efforts at GM also focus on marketing but again efforts to put Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys in Saturn dealerships next to the Saturn Aura, for side by side test drives have not had much impact on Aura sales. So a similiar effort for the Chevrolet Malibu in Chevy dealerships has been scrapped. There is even skepticism that a lifetime warranty on engines and transmissions by Chrysler on its vehicles will have much impact, so large is the customer resistance and ingrained perception of American car manufacturers. Over time perceptions may change but it will take a while to convince the American customer who feels he was once treated with disdain, and who will give a good hard look at things before he changes his mind. The figures bear this out. Years of neglect of car buying public and focus on SUV's and trucks is showing up in a 51.3 % share of the market for the American Three companies down from 60% 4 years ago. So half the market has pretty much been conceded to the likes of Honda and Toyota. Actually in the West and East coasts the numbers probably range to 60% and 70% depending on the local area in these 2 regions. So that means more established dealerships for cars, years of marketing effort focussed on cars, sales contacts and so that may take years to dislodge to any degree. The figures behind consideration by JD Powers show that 54% of car buyers are import loyalists, a slightly higher figure than the 51.3% showing that the trend is even more defection to imports in the 1-3 years ahead. And 22% consider both domestic and import cars. With this segment there is more selection in the imports beause only now are the American Three carmakers building up their car model lineups, especially Ford, so this will be ahard fought segment with no certainty that the Detroit Three carmakers will come out on top given the lead and established networks of the carmakers like Toyota and Honda. Only 25% are domestic or American carmaker loyal. A lot may depend on the way a customer is treated from reading letters to the editor in the media by buyers of US and import cars. A car buyer treated with no respect and sincere concern for his needs and preferneces is likely to remember the treatment for a long time. Not just products but attitudes and people in sincerity will have to change....

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Chrysler under Cerberus looks likely to throw out old ideas about how the company should be run. For example whats the right size for Chrysler and how many models and sales levels and the domestic focus. a lot of these ideas may go out the window to try to get the company to operate successfully. Expect a smaller company fewer but better models, and an international focus, at sales levels way below that in the past. Profitability matters old conceptions will be tossed out.

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An oldtimer or longtimer Glickenhaus who started on the Street in 1929 describes the crisis he sees in credit markets and wall street in October 2008. He says "the economy is so weak and the financial system so damaged that a recession or even possible depression will last for at least five years." He says we have gotten soft in the USA politically, economically and in every way, e have had so much prosperity that we can't compete anymore. "In things like autos those days are gone "( he was once a big Chrysler investor). He says he is more pessimistic about the future of business, more than he is pessimistic even than in the future of the stock market.

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GMAC under Cerberus 51% ownership is actually restricting credit for purchases of GM cars by insisting on credit scores over 700. To the point that GM is encouraging dealers to look for financing outside GMAC. Not a good state of affairs. Cerberus motivation may be that it wants the rest of GMAC instead of Chrysler and wants GM to give its 49% of GMAC in exchange for Chrysler's merging operations with GM. But anywhere upt half of Chrysler employees could lose their jobs in such a merger because there is no time for long term integration and the costcutting would be immediate. Again a bad state of affairs. And merging a money losing company with another money losing company at the beginning of a deep recession is not the kind of merger that has the chances of some success.

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According to analysts about 3.1 million workers across the USA work in auto manufacturers or related businesses. And every direct job at an automaker in the USA creates 5 other jobs according to the Center for Automotive Research, 2 of the 5 are related to suppliers or dealers and three are related to jobs a businesses where industry workers spend their paychecks. About 355,000 workers are directly employed by automakers, and the USA has 783,000 who make parts for automakers or the aftermarket including repair parts, says Debbie Menk project manager for CAR. Each of those supplier jobs has its own substantial trickle down effect. Another 1.97 million workers produce the steel, rubber and other materials to make the parts, or provide engineering, distribution and other support services, bringing the total to 2.78 million employees with jobs tied to suppliers. The spinoff effects spills into stores and restaurants relying on the incomes of those workers. Menk says that there are 1.7 million people who owe their jobs to the fact that the 2.7 million have jobs, getting the figure up to 4.4 million just on the supplier side. Factoring in some overlap in the retail spinoff from each supplier and automaker job, she estimates total employment in the auto industry at a minimum of 5 million jobs. She describes CAR's figures which are based on a study from earlier this year that used 2006 data, the most recent available, as conservative. Other experts like Anderson Economic Group using 2006 data come up with a higher figure of 8.7 million jobs. The auto industry spends spends more on R&D than any other industry except the government, $18.5 billlion a year says McAlinden, chief economist for CAR, with 85% of this done in Michigan. They also spend $15 billion in advertising. So why is this not registering in the minds of leaders around the country and in the minds of the public? Its possible that most people see only the 355,000 jobs at the automakers and not realize that the 355,000 direct jobs are assembly jobs which is what the automakers do and design and R&D, but there thousands of parts that go into this assembly, and the steel, rubber and aluminium that goes into the metal. And then there are the jobs to feed, clothe, and provide services to these workers. And its possible the arrogance and mismanagement at Detroit automakers, and failure to come up with innovative fuel efficient technologies at a time when the country was sending hundreds of billlions of dollars to the volatile middle east, and failure to come up with really appealing passenger cars, have soured the public mind and image of the Detroit automakers. Resulting in a public perception that the Japanese, Korean and other automakers could pickup where Detroit failed. In the process what is being missed is that the Detroit portion of the USA auto industry is a very significant part of the jobs and economy of certain states, and a big part of the economy of the midwestern states. And as CAR mentions most people do not realize that in the financial services industry one Wall Street job creates only 2.5 jobs elsewhere including spinoff jobs. Only high-tech comes close with 4 jobs including spinoffs for every direct job in Silicon Valley. ...

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More than one in four houses in Australia have solar panels on the rooftops. In Queensland and New South Wales half of homes have solar panels. This includes Sydney. This is more than most places, including California, Germany, U.S. Britain, France. In California less than 10% of utilities customers have solar panels in their homes. Rooftop solar provides 5% of its electricity in Australia, compared to 1% in the U.S. 

Much of this is because of states offering incentives and it saves money for homeowners. Australian conservatives see this as a way to promote their rugged individualism.

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Brazil's president Bolsonaro fires his health minister over his efforts to take a strong stand against coronavirus. The Justice minister resigns in protest. Brazil has not invested in its public health services during the boom years. As a result it has fallen behind in tackling public health crises. The added factor of a lack of political will to tackle the coronavirus and different signals from leaders increases the risks for Brazil. The economic crisis in Brazil and underfunded public services with overfunded pension system and mismanagement of public finances, adds new dimensions to the crisis.

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There is a small opening for talks between North and South Korea after sanctions lead to an overture by the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. The Korean president Moon sees this as part of his campaign effort to engage directly with North Korea. This report points to considerable skepticism of South Koreans whether a new "Sunshine Policy" effort is likely to work as it was tried with little success by previous presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. Yet it offers an opportunity to calm things down after the volatile exchanges between Trump and North Korea.

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The European Union has a massive surplus of $147 billion with the U.S. President Trump is making this an issue in trade negotiations. A 20% tariff on German cars imported into the U.S. is part of the tariff response from the Trump administration. 

To settle this dispute Germany is making new offers with the visit of European Commission president, Jean Claude Juncker, to Washington. France sees little room for compromise as it sees Trump's efforts designed to break European unity by driving a wedge between France and Germany.

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Ford Motor has better relations with the UAW than GM or Stellantis. It is expected to come to an agreement with the UAW as the two sides are close, says this report in WSJ. The supply chain is likely to be affected particularly the smaller suppliers. Suppliers have long term contracts and have not gained from the increase in prices from the shortages of production during the pandemic. Shawn Fain is introducing new ways for the UAW to get to its goal of income and wage fairness after the wage concessions made a decade earlier and a two tiered wage workforce.