While automobile companies on this side of the Atlantic determine how best to disassemble enterprise, elsewhere things are somewhat more positive. In contrast to the hard times seen by GM, Ford and Chrysler, Porsche has had a remarkable few years. So much so, that with the strong increase in sales, and the commensurate increase in profits, the employees of Porsche will be getting a significant bonus, and one larger than their bonus last year. I posted about the changes that went down at Porsche in the mid-1990’s, and as a result of those changes the successful strategy that has transpired. It would seem that Porsche is on the right track, and continuing to expand into new markets with new products. This will not last forever, as luxury automotive products can reach saturation in a market very quickly, but for the time it is a reality to be savored. Not fifteen years ago Porsche was on the brink of insolvency.

Porsche is, and has been, the world’s most profitable car company as of late. As a result, its 8,000 workers will receive a bonus of $7,350. Their bonus last year was $4,900. The increase is due to the fact that they sold nearly 98,000 cars and as a result profits rose by 3.4 percent to $10.5 Billion. Fifteen years ago Porsche’s sales numbers were decreasing towards 10,000 units.

That’s quite a turnaround, and I applaud the success. Porsche is an amazing case study in the value of decisive leadership, clear vision, knowing how to expand the value of a recognized and iconic brand, innovation across the board, and a belief in reinvention.

via Winding Road

There is a terrific article in Motortrend about Ron Dennis and his new “office” (pictured above). Ron leads McLaren… the designers and builders of incredibly high performance road and race cars. Most notably, McLaren has long been involved in Formula One racing, historically building and sponsoring (if not outright leading) some incredible winning campaigns. Think Mika Hakkinen in the late 90’s or so. McLaren is also behind the McLaren F1 BMW V12 powered roadgoing supercar of the mid-90’s that made my jaw hit the floor before I knew any better. It was hand-built by McLaren and sold to very wealthy people for around $1m.

But I digress, and though Ron Dennis is all kinds of cool, and although McLaren is an incredible design/engineering/R+D force in the world of high performance automobiles, this post is actually about workplace design. The article in Motortrend does an excellent job documenting, describing and exploring the new McLaren Technology Center designed by the starchitect Sir Norman Foster, the same knighted gentleman doing surreal projects all over the UAE and Dubai.

The new center is enormous, definitive in its design, and is a hub of quiet and focused activity for the 1000 staff that work there creating and developing high-performance vehicles. It is technically state of the art, and actually looks more like the HQ of NASA… or at least what NASA’s HQ should look like in movies. The environment created by Sir Norman Foster for McLaren is pure and unadulterated Ron Dennis. Ron is very much a top-down leader, and makes no apologies for this. In fact, he seems to revel in his level of control and influence over his organization. The design of this environment was not about focus groups and it was not about surveying employees. It was about listening to exactly what Ron wanted, analyzing that, and turning it into architecture. Here is a choice quote from the author of the article in Motortrend:

“Backwoods philosopher Henry David Thoreau warned we should ‘beware of any enterprise requiring new clothes.’ Dennis now has one of the biggest sets of new clothes of them all, a gleaming monument to the client’s uncompromising obsession and the architect’s near-perfect ability to deliver it. Architecturally speaking, it’s what you should expect when one of the world’s most technically bonkers architects is given a huge budget and a sympathetic brief. And it’s startling. But it’s clearly more than is strictly necessary to build Formula 1 cars.”

It goes on to state that the goal was to give the employees the absolute best environment within which to do their work. I get that, but looking at the photographs, and contrasting that with the facility VW created for the assembly of their Phaeton luxury car in Dresden, seen below, you cannot help but feel the concept of “the best environment” has very different manifestations.

I mean this in the most objective way possible, but where would you rather work? I have spent an inordinant amount of time wrenching on cars, and fast ones at that, and have a love for a clean, well lit and organized garage with everything in its place… but I also crave an environment that I would like to spend time in. This brings us right to the core of issues around involuntary, or non-preferred environments as illuminated by Orfield Labs in an earlier post about the Open Plan Work Group, and efforts to move our workplaces to align more closely with the other environments that we prefer, that we engage in voluntarily. The question I would love to ask the engineers and technicians that spend their days (and probably many evenings) in this operating theater environment is “Does it work for you?” Maybe it does, but I sense a chasm between the efforts to recreate the set of the movie Gattaca and provide the best possible environment for your people to toil in.

Do I sound harsh?

This commentary is in no way to imply that I do not think the new facility is cool looking. It is incredibly cool looking. Maybe too cool looking. The goal here, I believe, is not to just create environments that look “cool.” The goal here is to create environments that work, and this means work in relation to the human factors of the people that inhabit the environment. Given this, and when seen through the lens of architectural dynamics, I cannot help but think the McLaren Technology Center harbors enormous liabilities as it relates to human factors… especially when contrasted with the VW facility pictured above. We see this all of the time, where an organization decides to build a new headquarters and an enhanced presence. Inevitably, this comes down to how design is deployed to reflect the culture and brand of the organization… and it seems to stop there. How these environments actually engage the people that make up the organizations seems to not make it onto the agenda, or not until the very end when it is more of an afterthought. There is more time spent on the public face, on materials that are impactful, than on supporting culture and environments that enhance health. Foster’s firm, Foster+Partners, has a workplace consulting group… they must be engaged in these issues, and they may have brought them to the table in their initial design discussions with Ron Dennis. I surmise, though, that Ron’s style precluded anything being entertained that was not within the boundaries of his aesthetic vision, of which he is admittedly obsessive. The headline, “Dust Can Be Eliminated” is a direct quote from Ron Dennis.

One last quote from the article:

“Staff are allowed no personal mementoes on desks. Dennis tried a total ban on food and drink in the workplace because ‘food contaminates.’ There were slight mumbles from the normally docile staff. Water was offered as a concession.”

Check out the slideshows of VW’s Phaeton facility and McLaren’s new Technology Center, what do you think? Let me know in the comments.

A colleague of mine has launched his blog at knowlesystem. His focus is honed and specific to the forces changing and shaping the world of architecture and design. Cool stuff. We have had an infinite number of incredible discussions and brainstorms on this topic, and this was suggested as a way to begin capturing this content, and involve others in the conversation. I highly suggest subscribing as there will be a proliferation of compelling content coming forthwith.

Congrats on the site, Stephen.

Another colleague introduced acmesiren a couple weeks ago, and I wanted to offer a more formal welcome and congrats to Nick as well. His blog is focused on finding and revealing what is new, cool and interesting in the world of experimental music. Also, very cool stuff. And a terrific resource.

Both blogs are featured in the schneiderism blogroll in the right column, which is naturally an incredibly high honor.

This image represents the contrails of the 87,000+ planes that traverse the skies of the United States each day. 87,000. We’re a big country with big airspace, but not that big. Here’s the breakdown:

- Daily, more than 87,000 flights are in the skies in the United States

- Just over 30,000 of those flights are commercial carriers

- Daily, air traffic controllers handle 28,537 commercial flights

- Additionlly, they handle on average 27,178 general aviation flights (private planes)

- Plus 24,548 air taxi flights (planes for hire)

- And 5,260 military flights

- Lest we forget the 2,148 air cargo flights (Federal Express, UPS, etc.)

- Each second, roughly 5,000-5,500 planes are in the skies above the United States

- Yearly, air traffic controllers handle an average of 64 million takeoffs and landings

The scary thing is that the technology used to monitor this traffic has not changed much since the 1980’s, though air traffic has increased by a magnitude. The fact that we do not see more delays and disasters is a testament to the controllers who handle this anxiety and stress as a daily part of their job. Imagine these numbers in 2020. The skies are busy.

info. via natc

Back in 1966 Ford entered one of the most grueling and competitive events in motorsports… the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They had no experience with this type of racing. None. Ford had previously been thwarted in an attempt to purchase Ferrari, a force in European motorsports at the time (they still are) and the company that had been dominating at Le Mans for years. Ford could not buy Ferrari, so Ford would beat Ferrari and knock them from their place on the winner’s podium.

To do this Ford organized an incredible team. They brought on the best engineers, technicians, pit crew, managers, and drivers. They set about creating a new car just for this race, and just to beat Ferrari, and they did so in record time. The Ford team came together quickly, had a clear mission, a stated purpose, and the support of the bigwigs back in Detroit. They created the Ford GT40, and not only did they beat Ferrari in 1966, but the Ford team ended the 24 hour endurance race with a 1-2-3 finish (as pictured above in a photo staged for the press). Ford dominated Le Mans for three years in a row, and then dropped out of the race. Point proven. They organized to win, and they won. Handily.

We have already discussed here the realities of the competitive environment we all operate in. We’ve also discussed the ways in which our clients are changing and becoming more like us, and less like people who really need us. Given these two facts, it would seem imperative that the emphasis should be on creating the winning team, not on the winning. This is about the way in which we get there, not just getting there. Teams that win do so because they are organized to win. Teams that are organized to win are unstoppable.

There is tremendous pressure to perform, to win, to not fail. This creates urgency, and a fair amount of anxiety. It is also incredibly short sighted. This is an excellent opportunity for a long term strategy, to focus on building the best team, and supporting that team in coming together. With clear goals, good direction, and support great teams can be unstoppable. Taking the time to create and support a winning team has real long term value. Making the mistake of focusing only on winning means having to start over each time.

Image from autoblog

A friend of mine built a Sonex in his garage (see image below). It took over a year, maybe two. He’s old school, for real. He actually flies the thing, and apparently very well. He’ll admit to being amazed every time he lands safely, though.

Sonex, in partnership with AeroConversions, has announced an electric engine powered version of the two-person sport aircraft my friend built in his garage. He also drives a Prius, so this new offering from Sonex has got to drive him nuts. Anyway, Sonex president John Monnett revealed at a press conference in late July that the plane was part of a company plan to offer electrically powered, sustainable aircraft. This plane uses lightweight proprietary electric engine technology powered by ten “safe boxes” that house eight lithium-polymer batteries each. The company hopes to extend the current flight time of 45 minutes to an hour by using more efficient versions of these batteries, and says it will be exploring ethanol fuel options as well.

Really, this is cool from several angles. First, anything with an electric engine gets the nod. Second, owning your own aircraft is not for the faint of heart, and handling the expenses of ownership, especially the fuel costs, can be challenging. An electric engine mitigates the need for expensive aircraft gas. Third, small aircraft are usually powered by engines that are seemingly lifted from lawnmowers. That means they are noisy and tend to kick out a fair amount of pollution. An electric engine will be much more quiet, and obviously much more friendly to the environment.

Just for fun, here is an image of a Sonex kit similar to the one built by my friend:

I would not ride a bicycle that I built myself, let alone fly an airplane that I had anything to do with assembling. I always have leftover parts.

My wife likes to joke that she has never seen me look at another woman, but if a certain engine note comes into range I start whipping around like a maniac. This happens anytime I hear an Italian V-twin motorcycle, a helicopter, certain fixed-wing aircraft and generally anything that sounds remotely like a rear-engined sports car. I am a devoted gearhead.

This is in direct conflict with another passion of mine, the determination to lighten my impact on this planet and in all things try to be sustainable. Personally, I have had mixed success with this, but our family remains devoted to changing things when we can and keeping this top of mind. Professionally, sustainability is a driver for my organization and is the blood that runs through our design.

So, it was with child-like, wide-eyed excitement that I saw on Winding Road that Brammo Motorsports of Oregon is creating an electric supercar based on the Ariel Atom. This is unbelievably cool. To understand why, and perhaps get a window into what makes me tick… check out this video. Imagine this car as an electric, sustainable, environmentally friendly transport option.

At some time or another most companies struggle. They face challenges related to a changed competitive environment, or they face the daunting task of re-engineering business processes. We’ve all been there, we’ve all seen it. Years of success seem to culminate in seemingly insurmountable threats to the organizations very survival. These are decisive situations, and they require sound, considered leadership… but leadership not afraid to commit, to make decisions, and to act with an urgency that has at its core the future of the enterprise.

Such was the reality that Porsche found itself in a little less than 15 years ago. They were in serious trouble. Despite the storied history they had lost sight of their audience, of their relevance, and were watching worldwide sales numbers dip dangerously close to 10,000 vehicles (from a high of 53,000 in 1986). In 1992 an engineer named Wendelin Weideking was brought on at Porsche to head their materials and production group. He immediately traveled to Japan to survey the Japanese automotive industry, and what he saw both inspired and terrified him. He realized that Porsche could never survive with current processes and methodologies. He returned from Japan determined to pull the Porsche manufacturing mindset into modernity. He promised a 30% reduction in production costs and brought in a team of Japanese consultants from Toyota to dissect the Porsche process. He then cut the number of managers by 35% and fired 95% of the sales and marketing managers. He knew that change needed to start at the top, and that Porsche as a company needed to change its culture, its leadership and its vision. The traditional Porsche way was incorrect. That meant those who had managed Porsche into the present challenges had to get out of the way for new ways of thinking, of executing. I’ll let you read the full story through the link below, but suffice it to say that Porsche asked Weideking to take over as CEO in 1993 at the age of 39. He immediately went to work setting in motion a plan that not only turned Porsche around, but reclaimed their position as a high performance engineering company AND recast the company as the most profitable automotive manufacturer, per vehicle, in the world. A fascinating story.

original story via Cool Hunter