Some fifty or so years ago, the baby boom was in its infancy, and so was I. It was also a time when Americans began purchasing products not available during World War II. The result was corporate expansion and job growth.
Television land was where a lot of Americans traveled every evening, first in black and white and then in full color after 1954 (my family didn’t get there until the late ’60s). Personages like Edward R. Murrow, Ed Sullivan, Lucy, and even Lassie were warmly welcomed into our homes. Poodle skirts and hula hoops were everywhere, and dancing wasn’t dancing unless it was featured on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.
My, how times have changed, and they continue to change. Even the meanings of words change. Take for example, Pogo—it’s been a comic strip character, a jumping stick, a dance, a website on which to play games, and even an acronym for a government entity. Nothing ever seems to stay the same.
And speaking of names, another significant change that has been in the news lately is the fact that Google has been chosen as the most powerful global brand of 2007. Who would have thought a company that just a few years ago was something nifty and fun would one day surpass Microsoft and even Coca Cola in the brand stakes? Even the word Google has entered our vocabularies as both noun and verb.
Such a change, of course, is a representation of the continual emergence of new ideas in the almost unlimited field of technology. The fact that Google was able to take a private company and make it a public one without losing its focus speaks volumes and indicates that we might see more of these kinds of moves in the future.
Sometimes changes can sneak up on us. However, if we take the time to look closely, we can usually discern the steps that have occurred which led to the change.
As for another sign of change in our global environment, we recently learned that Japan’s Toyota Motor Corporation sold 2.35 million vehicles worldwide in the first quarter of this year, topping General Motors’ sales of 2.26 million. Although this marks the end of an era of dominance by the big three automakers, it didn’t occur overnight.
Toyota has been gaining on General Motors for the past several years. At a time when the American corporation has been struggling to bolster earnings with job cuts and plant closures, Toyota has been expanding rapidly riding the growing popularity of its fuel efficient cars and reputation for quality.
While the numbers only reflect sales for one quarter, they could foreshadow a unique challenge to General Motors, the undisputed world leader for nearly 76 years. As the giant automaker moves to celebrate its centenary anniversary next year, it faces the possibility of being deposed as the world’s largest manufacturer of motor vehicles.
General Motors and Toyota are global players, and each is working to enter markets in various countries around the world. An important thing to remember in this development, of course, is that thousands of people work for both firms and have a vested interest in their efforts to strengthen and enhance their companies.
We are most fortunate to have both General Motors and Toyota manufacturing facilities in Texas. Whether the Toyota surge will continue will not be evident for some time, but for right now, the Japanese manufacturer has signaled that change could be imminent.
In the meantime, these organizations will undoubtedly strive to make better products and keep Texans and Americans on the road in style.