To help automotive customers gain insight into the impact diverse market customers (African American, Asian, Hispanic) are having on the U.S. light vehicle industry, I will be publishing a set of blogs focused on the top 10 U.S. markets based on volume year-to-date (YTD) through June 2011. Although the top three markets are New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, respectively, I will start this series with a focus on the backyard of Polk's global headquarters - the Detroit DMA, also known as "Motown" or the "The Motor City."
Detroit ranks No. 6 overall in the U.S. based on new light vehicle sales YTD. The overall industry is up 17.5%, comparing 2011 June YTD vs. 2010 YTD sales. During the same period, Detroit's gain is approximately 10 percentage points below the national average at 7.3%. Detroit's share of national new vehicle sales is down .25 percentage points at 2.6%. Detroit's top 10 brand list is unique, as this will be one of the few major market top brand lists that does not include Toyota or its high volume Asian peers (Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia) in the top five. Domestic brands represent 90% of the Detroit list (see adjacent table).
In the media, it's often reported that Detroit is approximately 80% African American but as a native Detroiter, the report, if accurate, is for Detroit city proper. When you look at Detroit from a DMA perspective, one must also consider these suburban areas: Birmingham, Bloomfield, Farmington Hills, Novi, Dearborn, the Grosse Pointes and many more. From an automotive consumer standpoint, the Detroit DMA has the following ethnic mix: (AA = African American, AS = Asian, HS = Hispanic and OT = Non-AA, Non-AS, Non-HS).
From a brand perspective, Ford leads the way with one of three new vehicles. Two to watch are Chevrolet (+3.84%) and Buick (+1.64%), since both have strong share but more importantly have posted greater than a 1.5 percentage point share increases year-over-year.
So what are Detroiters driving? The following is a top five model list, based on volume purchased by each diverse market listed.
Hands down, the "King of the Road" is the Ford Fusion in Detroit.
This vehicle is ranked No. 1 by every diverse group in Detroit. Congrats to Ford for holding down the top spot in the backyard of their world headquarters. Readers will also notice that only the Asian diverse group selected the high volume Camry and Honda CR-V in their top five.
This is the first diverse automotive market summary series, with the New York DMA on deck. I look forward to hearing your thoughts as I work to increase the automotive market knowledge of the auto public at large.
by Marc Bland, Product Strategist & Multicultural Marketing Lead, Polk Hear Marc ON THE SHOW: http://tobtr.com/s/2799669
Toyota Honored By National Minority Supplier Development Council For Its Commitment With Diverse Suppliers
Toyota recognized as the 2011 Corporation of the Year for its $1 billion investment, development and advocacy in minority businesses across the United States
Toyota was named the Corporation of the Year 2011 by the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) for its continued commitment to minority suppliers and diverse communities. The award recognizes the company’s leadership around supplier diversity that impacts all areas of its business operations.
“Toyota is honored to receive this award from NMSDC for our efforts to support minority business inclusion and to partner with the organization for more than 20 years,” said Shigeki Terashi, president and COO of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. “Our company’s foundation – The Toyota Way – is built on continuous improvement and respect for people and this award reinforces our desire to find ways to strengthen and improve our processes, especially through supplier diversity.”
This is the second time Toyota was awarded this honor, selected by a NMSDC national committee comprised of minority business owners, for its commitment to maintaining a supplier base which reflects the diversity of its customers and the diversity of the team members who build and sell Toyota vehicles in North America.
“This recognition is reserved for corporations that fully embrace the value that minority suppliers bring to the corporate supply chain,” said NMSDC President Joset Wright. “Toyota’s commitment to supplier diversity and minority supplier development is firmly embedded in the corporate culture. Its comprehensive, world-class supplier diversity process is worthy of replication.”
Despite economic fluctuations in the automotive industry, Toyota has maintained its MBE supplier base, as well as a $1 billion commitment to partnering with minority-owned businesses.Through its operations, workforce and supply base, the company is dedicated to reflecting the many different cultures, backgrounds and outlooks of its customers and the communities in which they do business.
“I take great pride in my more than 10 years business partnership with Toyota,” said Berto Guerra, chairman and CEO of Avanzar Interior Technologies. “Toyota has provided my company the support and opportunity to help ensure the growth vitality of my business and the community of San Antonio.”
Over the past several years, Toyota has been recognized as a leader in diversity and inclusion through various awards from Black Enterprise, DiversityInc, the Human Rights Campaign and Hispanic Business. Toyota was the co-winner of the Corporation of the Year award from the National Minority Supplier Development Council in 2004. The company has also been recognized as Corporation of the Year by the following NMSDC regional councils:
Tri-State Minority Supplier Development Council which includes Kentucky, Southeast Indiana and West Virginia (2005-2010)
South Central Ohio Minority Supplier Development Council (2007)
Southwest Minority Supplier Development Council (2010)
AboutToyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) established operations in North America in 1957 and currently operates 14 manufacturing plants, including one under construction in Mississippi. There are more than 1,800 Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealerships in North America which sold more than 2 million vehicles in 2010. Toyota directly employs more than 35,000 in North America and its investment here is currently valued at more than $23 billion, including sales and manufacturing operations, research and development, financial services and design. Toyota’s annual purchasing of parts, materials, goods and services from North American suppliers totals nearly $25 billion. Toyota currently produces 12 vehicles in North America, including the Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Highlander, Matrix, RAV4, Sienna, Sequoia, Tacoma, Tundra, Venza and the Lexus RX 350.
About The National Minority Supplier Development Council
The National Minority Supplier Development Council, one of the country's leading business membership organizations, provides a direct link between corporate America and minority-owned businesses.It was chartered in 1972 to provide increased procurement and business opportunities for minority businesses of all sizes. www.nmsdc.org
*The Detroit-based Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council (MMSDC) has among its members about 130 African American-owned automotive suppliers that gross more than $10 million a year. MMSDC president is Louis Green hosts bi-monthly webinars on Supplier Diversity. www.MinoritySupplier.com
Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.
Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.
The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.
Every so often a business book comes along that changes how we think about innovation and entrepreneurship... The Lean Startup has the chops to join this exalted company. Financial Times
“The roadmap for innovation for the 21st century. The ideas in The Lean Startup will help create the next industrial revolution.” —Steve Blank, lecturer, Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley Haas Business School
"The key lesson of this book is that start-ups happen in the present—that messy place between the past and the future where nothing happens according to PowerPoint. Ries's ‘read and react’ approach to this sport, his relentless focus on validated learning, the never-ending anxiety of hovering between ‘persevere’ and ‘pivot’, all bear witness to his appreciation for the dynamics of entrepreneurship." —Geoffrey Moore, Author, Crossing the Chasm
"If you are an entrepreneur, read this book. If you are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, read this book. If you are just curious about entrepreneurship, read this book. Starting Lean is today's best practice for innovators. Do yourself a favor and read this book." —Randy Komisar, founding director of TiVo and author of the bestselling The Monk and the Riddle
“How do you apply the 50 year old ideas of Lean to the fast-paced, high uncertainty world of Startups? This book provides a brilliant, well-documented, and practical answer. It is sure to become a management classic.” —Don Reinertsen, author of The Principles of Product Development Flow
“The Lean Startup is a foundational must-read for founders, enabling them to reduce product failures by bringing structure and science to what is usually informal and an art. It provides actionable ways to avoid product-learning mistakes, rigorously evaluate early signals from the market through validated learning, and decide whether to persevere or to pivot, all challenges that heighten the chance of entrepreneurial failure.” —Professor Noam Wasserman, Harvard Business School
“One of the best and most insightful new books on entrepreneurship and management I’ve ever read. Should be required reading not only for the entrepreneurs that I work with, but for my friends and colleagues in various industries who have inevitably grappled with many of the challenges that The Lean Startup addresses.” —Eugene J. Huang, Partner, True North Venture Partners
"What would happen if businesses were built from the ground up to learn what their customers really wanted? The Lean Startup is the foundation for reimagining almost everything about how work works. Don't let the word startup in the title confuse you. This is a cookbook for entrepreneurs in organizations of all sizes." —Roy Bahat, President, IGN Entertainment
“Every founding team should stop for 48 hours and read Lean Startup. Seriously stop and read this book now.” —Scott Case, CEO Startup America Partnership
“In business, a ‘lean’ enterprise is sustainable efficiency in action. Eric Ries’ revolutionary Lean Startup method will help bring your new business idea to an end result that is successful and sustainable. You’ll find innovative steps and strategies for creating and managing your own startup while learning from the real-life successes and collapses of others. This book is a must read for entrepreneurs who are truly ready to start something great!” —Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and The One Minute Entrepreneur
“Every entrepreneur responsible for innovation within their organization should read this book. It entertainingly and meticulously develops a rigorous science for the innovation process through the methodology of “lean thinking”. This methodology provides novel and powerful tools for companies to improve the speed and efficiency of their innovation processes through minimum viable products, validated learning, innovation accounting, and actionable metrics. These tools will help organizations large and small to sustain innovation by effectively leveraging the time, passion, and skill of their talent pools.” —Andrea Goldsmith, professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, and cofounder of several startups
“Business is too important to be left to luck. Eric reveals the rigorous process that trumps luck in the invention of new products and new businesses. We've made this a centerpiece of how teams work in my company . . . it works! This book is the guided tour of the key innovative practices used inside Google, Toyota, and Facebook, that work in any business.” —Scott Cook, Founder and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Intuit
About the Author
ERIC RIES is an entrepreneur and author of the popular blog Startup Lessons Learned. He co-founded and served as CTO of IMVU, his third startup, and has had plenty of startup failures along the way. He is a frequent speaker at business events, has advised a number of startups, large companies, and venture capital firms on business and product strategy, and is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School. His Lean Startup methodology has been written about in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, the Huffington Post, and many blogs. He lives in San Francisco.
To help automotive customers gain insight into the impact diverse market customers (African American, Asian, Hispanic) are having on the U.S. light vehicle industry, I will be publishing a set of blogs focused on the top 10 U.S. markets based on volume year-to-date (YTD) through June 2011. Although the top three markets are New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, respectively, I will start this series with a focus on the backyard of Polk's global headquarters - the Detroit DMA, also known as "Motown" or the "The Motor City."
In the media, it's often reported that Detroit is approximately 80% African American but as a native Detroiter, the report, if accurate, is for Detroit city proper. When you look at Detroit from a DMA perspective, one must also consider these suburban areas: Birmingham, Bloomfield, Farmington Hills, Novi, Dearborn, the Grosse Pointes and many more. From an automotive consumer standpoint, the Detroit DMA has the following ethnic mix: (AA = African American, AS = Asian, HS = Hispanic and OT = Non-AA, Non-AS, Non-HS).
