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Former executive to tip bucket on Holden

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#1 ·
Former executive to tip a bucket on Holden

December 12, 2012 - 8:56AM
Fairfax media
Peter McKay


Local motor industry mover and shaker John Crennan, the former Holden executive who headed up Holden Special Vehicles for its first two decades, is writing a tell-all memoir that promises to explain the brand's fall from grace in recent years.

His book, 50 Years of Holden – sub-titled People, Personalities, Politics and Poor Performances – is, he says, about 70 per cent finished and will be published next year.

“Like the way I work, I don't sit on the fence!” Crennan declares.

Starting in December 1962 at a weekly stipend of £10 and 15 shillings he embarked on a 10-year journey from the mail room to the executive dining room.

Marking the 50 years since he joined Holden, Crennan has revealed many of the contentious motor industry and motor sporting topics he will cover in his book.

Current Holden executives are not going to enjoy Crennan's assessment of the present management team. He will answer the question why Holden went from having so many heavyweight, highly talented executives in its ranks in Crennan's first 25 years, to so few in the past 25.

“I've listed 50 reasons why Holden dropped from nearly 50 per cent market share when I started 50 years ago to approximately 10 per cent now, and how the Holden brand got damaged along the way,” he says.

Crennan has been researching meticulously, rifling through his detailed diaries and records. He suggests Holden created too much confusion with dealers and customers with an avalanche of more than 150 products and brands. He has counted 53 product badges alone.

Continued here

 
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#7 ·
#5 ·
...bitter departures nurture bitter memories...and turn "rose-colored" glasses into "feces-taited" spectacles!
 
#9 ·
Yeah it's a bit of sour grapes there for John

One thing missing in the article is the number of players in the market since Holden had a 50% market share

Right now it's something like 18% Toyota 10% Holden, Mazda are pretty close to that as well then Ford and everyone else fights for table scraps

More Manufacturers and more models than pretty much anywhere else and only a 1 million sale per annum market

It's tough to get much more than 15%
 
#10 ·
it will be interesting to see what he says about the HRT/HSV ownership merry-go-round.
 
#11 · (Edited)
There's a couple issues with tipping a bucket: firstly, it's hard to avoid getting hit by the splash yourself.

And secondly, if you know where the bodies are buried, it means you helped bury them....... And no doubt people who know that will not be backwards in coming forward. If he was there that long, he bears shared responsibility for the misses as well as the hits.

Before the 1950's there were assemblers like Holden and Fisher - and Ford. Many makers were prevented from trade with Australia, particularly former Axis powers - who were restricted as to heavy industry they could have.

In 2012 there's 43 manufacturers including 3 locals selling passenger vehicles in Australia - in a near tariff-free, and import-restrictionless market. A bit different to then.
 
#13 ·
In 2012 there's 43 manufacturers including 3 locals selling passenger vehicles in Australia - in a near tariff-free, and import-restrictionless market. A bit different to then.
Ten years ago there were 40 manufacturers present in Australia. Market share: Holden 21.3%, Toyota 17.8% then, and Holden 10% and Toyota 18% now. And in 2002 the number one obstacle to total Australian market domination (according to Peter Hanenberger)? High import tariffs.

JC has a good point there. For the past 10 years Holden has seen an exodus of experienced car industry executives. It needs people/leaders with charisma and balls, and instead it gets more co-op students (read: cheap labour) and ex-Loreal product managers (people who even don't understand the difference between 16" and 17" wheels). And the brand is badly diluted - Korean/Thai cars, multi million dollar government handouts, job cuts, etc. WTF?

JC lately didn't have too many fans at Holden - outspoken, he definitely doesn't sit on a fence, and takes no prisoners. But he definitely knows how to run a profitable business.
 
#12 ·
What's the title of his book gonna be, "On A Clear Day You Can See...New Zealand" (wink,wink)?
 
#15 ·
I'm predicting a few more memoirs for ex Ford and Holden heads as the spleen venting continues,

"I told 'em they was wrong, they shoulda listened to me..."

Great 20-20 hindsight vision if you want to sell tell all books but adds absolutely nothing to solving today's problems..
 
#16 · (Edited)
Precisely. And it isn't only external factors. The other week at the Holden Colorado launch, Devereux was saying: out of 20 OECD countries, 19 make cars. And the one that doesn't Saudi Arabia, wants to.

In England, it's been announced they have gained $US 12 billion in new automotive private-government partnerships for the next two years - Nissan, Honda, some Euros. And no-one there is questionining whether that's a positive thing - all sides of politics except maybe the Green fringe who are anti-car think it's great.

In Australia, the Government is spending $2 billion in ten years in co-operative assistance which got things like Cruze, Ford six-cylinder engine retained, Falcon guaranteed to 2016, Toyota hybrid plant and new engine facilities at Altona, where a carmaker have to spend money upfront to be rebated - and we have 'commentators' and a federal opposition openly questioning whether we can 'afford it'.

Devereaux said - Holden, Ford, Toyota go 100% import? Nothing easier, probably more profitable. But all of them also reaslise that would hurt the societies of which they're part, and all of them have a policy of where possible, building where they sell.

He said - no other country on the planet is questioning whether retaining an auto industry is a desirable thing. And he said, he is born English, raised Canadian and spent most of his professional adult life in the US and just can't understand the attitude. Part of the reason GM is doing so bad in Canada is seething resentment over the loss of Pontiac and whole plants.

If Hockey and Abbott get in and do what their stated policy says, it will all be moot - HFT will be gone within five years. Devereaux said, I'm not playing politics, but without some form of co-payment for the next gen product cycle, it just won't happen and I have to tell you that. VF and the current Cruze will peter out as their model life expires, and Elizabeth will be progressively shuttered. When auto makers see statements attributed to those numbnuts who don't care because it's only blue-collar unionised workers who will be out of a job, Devereux then spends a lot of time hosing down the anger from GM - as does Graziano and Yasuda with their companies.

The engine plant won't long survive as the tooling can just go O/S where some 2nd or 3rd world country will pay to host it.
 
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