The week that was: 12 August 08 - 19 August 08
Last year’s Oscars were notable for the modes of transport taken by the stars to world’s most glitzzy awards evening. Out went the Limos and in came the hybrids, as General Motors ferried the likes of Tom Cruise and Dame Helen Mirren to the red carpet in cars as green as the leaves that adorn Hollywood Boulevard. Next year, however, the pampered screen stars will have to make their own arrangements after the cash-strapped automotive giant announced it was slashing its promotional budget and ending its 19-year sponsorship of the event. Doubtless, some of the world’s most notoriously high maintenance stars will be putting a brave face on things (after all the show must go on), but with losses topping $18bn in the first half of 2008, GM appears to have far more pressing concerns.
Figure of the week – 11,250,000% – the current rate of inflation in Zimbabwe, suggesting that businesses will be looking elsewhere in Africa for their sourcing needs.
General Motors isn’t the only automotive company making cut backs, and procurement chiefs from Detroit’s Big Three auto-giants last week issued a chilling warning to their suppliers. “We have too many companies chasing too few producers and it’s time to belly up to the bar,” Ford Motor’s Global Purchasing Vice President Tony Brown, told a suitably bemused audience. Sticking the knife in, Chrysler’s chief procurement officer John Campi told the same conference that he was “not looking to kill suppliers,” before admitting that there were already some he “could not save.” Procurement Leaders predicts a supplier bloodbath in the home of America’s automotive industry before the year is out.
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