Maybe people don't learn from history ... or maybe all corporation (because of its structure) inevitably ends up this way.
Currently, Toyota is getting pretty beat up -- what with recalls, inability to explain what is really wrong with the cars, etc. This week in particular, news swirled around how outrageous it is that Toyota's internal memo discussed how it saved $100 million by floormat recall. People are questioning whether Toyota really cares about safety.
But current event reminded me of another part of auto history... that people seem to have forgotten. Do you remember the infamous Ford Pinto Memo? Basically, Ford knew that Pinto had a defect. However, after calculating what Ford would pay for accidents caused by the defect, Ford concluded it was mathematically better to leave the problem as is because it would save $70 million. That is after mathematically calculating for payments for accidents, burned victims, settlements, etc. In essence, human lives -- that we would like to think cannot be reduced to dollars -- were reduced to dollars and were concluded to be worth less than $11 fix on the defective part.
So Toyota appears to have taken similar route of calculating cost v. benefit for the company. To lay people, it's appalling. Yet, I have to wonder, since this appears to be history repeating itself, maybe it's just inevitable that corporate structure leads to such result. At some point, the drive for profit (bottom line) at all cost drives out any other factors such as safety and value of human lives is more than dollar figures... So what's our lesson? Will beating up Toyota mean this won't happen again? I have to wonder...
No comments:
Post a Comment