[*Read by the author - Frank Ahrens] Recounting his three years in Korea, the highest-ranking non-Korean executive at Hyundai sheds light on a business culture very few Western journalists ever experience in this revealing, moving, and hilarious memoir.When Frank Ahrens, a middle-aged bachelor and eighteen-year veteran at the Washington Post, fell in love with a diplomat, his life changed dramatically. Following his new bride to her first appointment in Seoul, South Korea, Frank traded the newsroom for a corporate suite, becoming director of global communications at Hyundai Motors. In a land whose population is ninety-seven percent Korean, he was one of fewer than ten non-Koreans in a company of 5,000 employees.For the next three years, Frank traveled to auto shows and press conferences around the world, pitching Hyundai to former colleagues while trying to navigate cultural differences at home and at work. While his appreciation for absurdity enabled him to laugh his way through many awkward encounters, his job began to take a toll on his marriage and family. Eventually, he became a vice president -- the highest-ranking non-Korean in the history of Hyundai -- but at an untenable price.Filled with unique insights and told in his engaging, humorous voice, Seoul Man sheds light on a culture few Westerns know, and is a delightfully funny and heartwarming adventure for anyone who has ever felt like a fish out of water -- all of us.

The authors point out the entire business orientated automotive value chain. With regard to the finance perspective these elements of the value chain are scrutinized chapter by chapter. Current trends in new mobility concepts, cross-industry strategic alliances as well as requirements for product launch, especially in the BRIC countries, are highlighted. The book provides the link between science and business practice in the automotive industry. It can be used as a textbook. Many practitioners might also use it as a guideline in the field of automotive management.

Product Description: Im Zusammenhang mit dem Klimawandel wird der Einsatz gruner Antriebstechnologien im Automobilbereich seit einiger Zeit verstarkt diskutiert. Viele Regierungen zahlen bereits Kaufpramien oder ahnliches fur Elektroautos und Co. Die deutsche Bundesregierung halt sich damit bisher zuruck...read more

Product Description: Das von der Bundeskanzlerin ausgegebene Ziel, bis 2020 eine Million Elektroautos auf die Straaen zu bringen, erscheint aus Sicht vieler Fachleute kaum noch realisierbar. Woran liegt es, dass sich die Diffusion von Elektrofahrzeugen so langsam vollzieht? Warum sind sie nach wie vor ein Nischenprodukt, das nur in wenigen Teilbereichen Akzeptanz findet, aber beim Individual-, vor allem beim privaten Pkw-Verkehr den Durchbruch bislang nicht geschafft hat? Der Autor geht diesen Fragen im Detail nach, indem er die Verbreitung von Elektrofahrzeugen im Zeitraum von 1967 bis 2012 verfolgt...read more

For decades there have been two iconic Japanese auto companies. One has been endlessly studied and written about. The other has been generally underappreciated and misunderstood. Until now.Since its birth as a motorcycle company in 1949, Honda has steadily grown into the world’s fifth largest automaker and top engine manufacturer, as well as one of the most beloved, most profitable, and most consistently innovative multinational corporations. What drives the company that keeps creating and improving award-winning and bestselling models like the Civic, Accord, Odyssey, CR-V, and Pilot?According to Jeffrey Rothfeder, what truly distinguishes Honda from its competitors, especially archrival Toyota, is a deep commitment to a set of unorthodox management tenets. The Honda Way, as insiders call it, is notable for decentralization over corporate control, simplicity over complexity, experimentation over Six Sigma-driven efficiency, and unyielding cynicism toward the status quo and whatever is assumed to be the truth. Honda believes in freely borrowing from the past as a bridge to “innovative discontinuity” in the present. And those are just a few of the ideas that the company’s colorful founder, Soichiro Honda, embedded in the DNA of his start-up sixty-five years ago.As the first journalist allowed behind Honda’s infamously private doors, Rothfeder interviewed dozens of executives, engineers, and frontline employees about its management practices and global strategy. He shows how the company has developed and maintained its unmatched culture of innovation, resilience, and flexibility—and how it exported that culture to other countries that are strikingly different from Japan, establishing locally controlled operations in each region where it lays down roots.For instance, Rothfeder reports on life at a Honda factory in the tiny town of Lincoln, Alabama, and what happened when American workers were trained to follow the Honda Way, as a self-sufficient outpost of the global company. Could they master Honda’s three core principles:Embrace Paradox: Honda encourages respectful disagreement and debate between opposing viewpoints, on matters large and small. New ideas often emerge from conflict.Real Place, Real Part, Real Knowledge: Honda teaches people to argue using facts, not assumptions. One must go to the factory floor, the showroom, the parking lot, the driver’s seat, or the truck bed—whatever it takes—to get the facts and make a decision that can be supported with data.Respect Individualism: Honda often hires people with unusual backgrounds and independent streaks. It promotes those who question the status quo and who would probably struggle in organizations that focus on rigid rules and systems.Rothfeder shows how the Alabama plant became a new model for manufacturing in America. It can turn out several different types of cars on any given day and up to 300,000 vehicles and engines a year. Its flexible model enables unparalleled responsiveness to market changes and recovery from mistakes.As Soichiro Honda himself liked to say, “Success can be achieved only through repeated failure and introspection. In fact, success represents one percent of your work, which results only from the ninety-nine percent that is called failure.”