The second century

Matthias Holweg and Frits Pil take a look at the dysfunctional nature of current value-chain strategies, then systematically discuss the changes in product and processes that are needed to bring about responsiveness to customers' needs. They look beyond the dealer, the factory and the design studio to understand the web of relationships and dynamics that have brought the auto industry to its current low point. Holweg and Pil argue that in this century the winners will not be those firms that search for larger and larger scale or those who run efficient factories and squeeze the last drop of profitability from their suppliers. The winners, they say, will be those who build products as if customers mattered.