...and my guess is that they will do so -- continually.
So the latest business news is that Toyota will probably be the #1 auto manufacturer in the world -- displacing GM -- at the end of this year. Now Toyota publicly states that they do not place much stock in being #1 (and I believe those statements), but there are a couple of important points related to this news. First, Toyota got the lead during a period of (arguable) global economic decline by increasing sales by 2% versus GM's sales decline of 3% over the same period. Second, at these sales levels, Toyota continues to turn a profit while GM continues to lose money.
How much longer will GM and the other US auto manufacturers continue to do business within antiquated paradigms? They can only lose money for so long.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Heavy Medal
So this bicycle racing season has been one of ups and downs. Right now I'm on a big up. This past Saturday was the Southern California / Nevada Cycling Association (SCNCA) Team Time Trial District Championships in Palmdale (Lake Los Angeles). I rode it with three other Lightning Velo members, all of whom were over 40 years old. We were in the 180+ (total age) category and I was the oldest rider on our team. The punch line is, despite some problems on my part, we averaged 27 MPH for roughly 23 miles -- good enough for a bronze medal!
The most satisfying part of the race was that despite not training together as a team beforehand, we rode very smoothly as a team -- no close calls with respect to running into each other. Next on the satisfaction list was beating the 4th place team by 11 seconds. Their team leader is someone who I've known for a long time and we have a "friendly" rivalry that usually includes some smack talk (on his part).
A few days later, on Tuesday, I was at El Dorado Park in Long Beach for the California State Senior Olympics. First and second place in these events qualified you for the 2009 National Senior Games in Palo Alto.
First up was the 5K Individual Time Trial (ITT). I had never raced anything that short and I didn't have a good feel on how to meter my effort. In the end I went out too fast but I still ended up 3rd for my first medal of the games.
Later that day, I did the 40K road race on the standard "Eldo" course. There were 10 of us in the race, eight in the 50-54 age group and two in the 55-59 age group (which included my friend Craig). In my age group there were three members of La Grange, a Los Angeles team, and three members from Peninsula Velo, an northern California team. Things were not looking good.
The race pace at the start was tepid at best. I tried once to speed things up with no luck. My next attempt to get some response from the pack was met with an inadvertently large gap. As I sat up waiting for them to reel me in, my friend Craig and a Peninsula Velo guy came up to me and when they caught me we still had a reasonable gap. So with about 17 miles to go in the race, we put our heads down and stayed away for the rest of the race. We almost lapped the field.
Bell lap and I had second wheel coming out of the last corner which was still about 500 meters from the finish. I decided to try to open a gap on the slight uphill and try to hold it to the finish. Unfortunately, that didn't work and I ended up with 2nd.
So today, Wednesday, started with a 10K ITT. I had high hopes but my legs were too tired from the previous day so I couldn't quite hold a 25 MPH average. I don't know my exact placing but I suspect that it was another bronze. Note that per my computer, the course was short by about 0.3 miles.
The road race was supposed to be 20K but it was also shortened by about 2 miles. We were the last race of the day and the wind had come up (more on the wind later). I had decided to stay with the pack which consisted of 11 50-54 year old racers and 3 55-59 year olds. A half lap into the race a La Grange and a Peninsula Velo racer moved off the front never to be seen again. I know that I could have hooked up with them but I thought that I shouldn't be too greedy with the qualifying spots. The race was the slowest that I've ridden in years. I pulled a whole lap a 22-23 MPH just to get a bit of a workout.
Coming out of the last corner I was last, but I noticed that the guy who had won the previous day was now sprinting off the front of the group going after the bronze. I thought, "hey that's being kind of greedy," so I took off on the left side and fortunately everyone else was single file on the right blocking the wind. I went flying off the front of the group, worked it a bit to catch the guy, sat on his wheel for 20 meters, and then sprinted around him for the bronze.
All in all a pretty good couple of days of racing -- a silver and two bronzes (and maybe another silver or bronze).
[Update: I ended up with a silver in the 50-54 40K road race and bronzes in the 50-54 20K road race, the 5K time trial, and the 10K time trial. Next stop is Palo Alto in 2009.)
The most satisfying part of the race was that despite not training together as a team beforehand, we rode very smoothly as a team -- no close calls with respect to running into each other. Next on the satisfaction list was beating the 4th place team by 11 seconds. Their team leader is someone who I've known for a long time and we have a "friendly" rivalry that usually includes some smack talk (on his part).
A few days later, on Tuesday, I was at El Dorado Park in Long Beach for the California State Senior Olympics. First and second place in these events qualified you for the 2009 National Senior Games in Palo Alto.
First up was the 5K Individual Time Trial (ITT). I had never raced anything that short and I didn't have a good feel on how to meter my effort. In the end I went out too fast but I still ended up 3rd for my first medal of the games.
Later that day, I did the 40K road race on the standard "Eldo" course. There were 10 of us in the race, eight in the 50-54 age group and two in the 55-59 age group (which included my friend Craig). In my age group there were three members of La Grange, a Los Angeles team, and three members from Peninsula Velo, an northern California team. Things were not looking good.
The race pace at the start was tepid at best. I tried once to speed things up with no luck. My next attempt to get some response from the pack was met with an inadvertently large gap. As I sat up waiting for them to reel me in, my friend Craig and a Peninsula Velo guy came up to me and when they caught me we still had a reasonable gap. So with about 17 miles to go in the race, we put our heads down and stayed away for the rest of the race. We almost lapped the field.
Bell lap and I had second wheel coming out of the last corner which was still about 500 meters from the finish. I decided to try to open a gap on the slight uphill and try to hold it to the finish. Unfortunately, that didn't work and I ended up with 2nd.
So today, Wednesday, started with a 10K ITT. I had high hopes but my legs were too tired from the previous day so I couldn't quite hold a 25 MPH average. I don't know my exact placing but I suspect that it was another bronze. Note that per my computer, the course was short by about 0.3 miles.
The road race was supposed to be 20K but it was also shortened by about 2 miles. We were the last race of the day and the wind had come up (more on the wind later). I had decided to stay with the pack which consisted of 11 50-54 year old racers and 3 55-59 year olds. A half lap into the race a La Grange and a Peninsula Velo racer moved off the front never to be seen again. I know that I could have hooked up with them but I thought that I shouldn't be too greedy with the qualifying spots. The race was the slowest that I've ridden in years. I pulled a whole lap a 22-23 MPH just to get a bit of a workout.
Coming out of the last corner I was last, but I noticed that the guy who had won the previous day was now sprinting off the front of the group going after the bronze. I thought, "hey that's being kind of greedy," so I took off on the left side and fortunately everyone else was single file on the right blocking the wind. I went flying off the front of the group, worked it a bit to catch the guy, sat on his wheel for 20 meters, and then sprinted around him for the bronze.
All in all a pretty good couple of days of racing -- a silver and two bronzes (and maybe another silver or bronze).
[Update: I ended up with a silver in the 50-54 40K road race and bronzes in the 50-54 20K road race, the 5K time trial, and the 10K time trial. Next stop is Palo Alto in 2009.)
Monday, May 05, 2008
Toyota's Success is No Secret
A colleague led me to this article in the The New Yorker online. It is one of the better "general" pieces that I've seen on Toyota and the core reasons for its success.
As I've noted before, the culture of Toyota is its obvious secret. It's not the artifacts that we can see everyday in its factories and offices. It's a coporate culture that works in Japan and in Toyota's American factories.
So how has Toyota stayed ahead of the pack?
The answer has a lot to do with another distinctive element of Toyota’s approach: defining innovation as an incremental process, in which the goal is not to make huge, sudden leaps but, rather, to make things better on a daily basis. (The principle is often known by its Japanese name, kaizen—continuous improvement.) Instead of trying to throw long touchdown passes, as it were, Toyota moves down the field by means of short and steady gains. And so it rejects the idea that innovation is the province of an elect few; instead, it’s taken to be an everyday task for which everyone is responsible.
As I've noted before, the culture of Toyota is its obvious secret. It's not the artifacts that we can see everyday in its factories and offices. It's a coporate culture that works in Japan and in Toyota's American factories.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
From the Back of the Pack: 2008 Mark Reynolds San Luis Rey Road Classic
The short story is I finished for the first time in my last several attempts at this race and I stayed in the peloton longer than I have over the same period of time. Though this doesn't sound like much progress, at my age you have to savor any progress that you make.
I really didn't start the race in a good frame of mind. I've been worrying about getting dropped quickly -- especially after last week's debacle race at Devils Punchbowl. My teammate and I stayed at my parents' house in Murrieta on Saturday night and we got to the start not-so-bright but early at about 6:15 AM. Got ready, warmed up a little, and waited with 65 other riders for the start.
I felt OK on the initial climb up to Old Highway 395. Going over the top I faded to the back but I didn't have a problems on the descent or being right in the peloton after the hard right-hand turn at the bottom of the hill. I was conserving energy on the back side of the course and the we made the very hard right on to climbing section back to the start / finish. I felt pretty good until we got to the 1 Km to the finish sign. I started coming off the back but I was hoping that the pack would slow a bit approaching the steeper climb. I was maybe 50 meters off the back when we crossed start / finish but once we got to the steeper climb I was history.
I stayed within myself back up to Old Highway 395 and just as I got to the top another racer caught me. Cutting to the chase, we ended up working together for the duration of the race. I dropped him (not intentionally as we were finishing the race -- 4 laps) but as we were approaching the finish I realized that he was charging up next to me. We sprinted to the line for next-to-last (56th) and last place. I beat him by inches.
So two weeks in a row with next-to-last finishes (of those who finished). However, after comparing my Garmin data to last year this year is a marked improvements. I take my small victories where I can.
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