1.0 External Issues
Having been to Japan, I knew where the future was. It was with the Japanese or rather doing it their way. They were clearly ahead of the automotive game. Thinking of the future strategically:
Take the EEC
I saw it like this. It was divided into two. Northern and Southern. This was primarily mindset/cultural.
The North: Holland, Germany, Scandinavian members and especially the UK saw a common market with no internal trade barriers within and significantly reducing barriers to external trading partners, as good.
The South: France, Spain, Italy, (the Latin Mediterranean’s) saw an internal protected market where they can duck and dive. Choosing which rules to use, modify or discard and, very definitely, saw the common market surrounded by a fortress wall keeping foreign traders disadvantaged and out.
How did all this 'big picture thinking' impact on little old Rearsby in rural Leicestershire? In my view it did and it would.
Take the big three Japanese automakers
Nissan, Honda and Toyota. They had built up significant market share in Europe, supplying product from the Far East. Was this sustainable? The brands were household names. Were they now good corporate ‘citizens’ in their export markets? Their imports had impacted upon domestic vehicle producers causing them reduced market share and job losses. I saw a tipping point approaching where they would be forced into local (i.e. EEC) presence and manufacture. They would be forced to build giant plants somewhere in Europe. The UK was in the EEC. We spoke English. We openly welcomed, facilitated and supported inward investment.
We are an island culture. So is Japan. We had a skilled workforce and excellent education systems. We were a safe Nation. We had excellent international air and shipping networks. The UK had Tier 1-4 suppliers. The UK was outward facing. We traded with the world for centuries. The UK had a better than even chance of attracting Japanese automakers to the UK. Perversely, the attitudes of the Latin-Med Nations would force Nissan, Honda and Toyota to jump over the EEC wall, but locate in the more welcoming north!
Take Rearsby
Our largest customer, ARG lumbered from crisis to crisis and had been contracting for decades. Its owner (UK Government) didn't like owning it. BL was characterized by lack-lustre models, uncompetitive quality and reliability, poor productivity, appallingly bad press linked to poor working practices and labour relations/union activity and continuous losses! Its trajectory was down. Probably down and out. How long? 10 years, 15, 20? We in 1982 were locked into this leviathan. As was our future. They were the example we had been ‘guided’ by! Only months before we were part of them. Very frightening.
There was an alternative. Secure business with the world's best automakers. By common consent and by any measure, they were undoubtedly; Nissan, Honda and Toyota.
They would either drag us kicking and screaming to world-class levels of performance. Or, they would put us out of business.
I was up for that challenge. Absolutely.
That is what I set out to do. I needed to convince the board. Then, the workforce. The future will be tough. But it would be exciting and bright!
Weeks later, when I worked out my thinking was not a pipe dream but a distinct possibility, indeed likely probability. With the support of my board, I delivered a presentation to all at Rearsby.
I announced we were going into a tough new future. I was sure the Japanese would locate in Europe. I was hopeful some, or all, would locate in the UK. By any measure they were world's best automakers. In January I had had a glimpse into the future.
They were the future, our future.But... we were going to ‘beaten up’ on this journey. We were in for a 1.split-lip, 2.black eye, 3.cauliflower ear and 4.a broken nose!!
I knew what three were. Quality, Cost, Delivery. At a different level, precision and intensity we were not accustomed to. The fourth, I had not yet figured, but there is something they do we don't. We will find out along our journey and we did.