William J. Holstein

About this blog:

I believe that the most important thing Americans have to do is secure their economic well-being in an increasingly challenging, complex world. All the arguments about culture (school prayer, the flag, etc.) are fine for other Americans to have—and they are a healthy sign of democracy. But they are beside the point.

What I have written about all these years is the process of creating wealth, not for any one individual, but for the United States as a whole. Ever since I was a young correspondent witnessing the emergence of China, just after the country opened in 1979, I've held the opinion that we have to get more serious about increasing the wealth of the U.S.

That means focusing not only on how our corporations are run (governance), but also on innovation and productivity/competitiveness. Despite the predicament in which we find ourselves today (and I think we face a tough five-year economic restructuring, not a mild recession), I retain faith in the resiliency of the U.S. economy and the enterprise of American people. If Americans have the right facts, and focus on the task at hand, we can once again get serious about creating wealth, not just playing funny money games.

So come with me on this journey as I explore the complicated issues involved in maintaining the economic health of the U.S

Crisis Strategies: Toyota and the Roman Catholic Church
APRIL 8--Toyota and the Roman Catholic church are dramatically different institutions, yet they are making the same mistake in handling their communications crises: they are not accepting the criticism of their practices and changing the way they do business. ...
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Still Reading “WHY GM MATTERS”
APRIL 7--FROM A READER IN ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, WHO OBVIOUSLY HAS A SENSE OF HISTORY: Dear Mr. Holstein, Just finished reading 'Why GM Matters.' An interesting read. I was particularly taken by your statement on page 191 that the U.S. government "..asked ...
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Quaking in Their Boots in Beijing
APRIL 5--The Communist Party leadership must be terrified that the U.S. Treasury is going to issue a report to Congress labeling China as a currency manipulator. The Treasury, in its infinite wisdom, has delayed making this determination for a while, but the sword ...
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Too Much Optimism on Jobs
APRIL 5--The news accounts were very upbeat about the jobs numbers Friday, and so was President Obama. I understand the thirst for optimism, but we should remind ourselves that roughly a quarter of the new jobs being created were for the census. That means these ...
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What Google China and Japan Tuna have in common
MARCH 25--Many tongues are wagging in the United States over China's refusal to allow Google to offer uncensored search engine results in China and Japan's insistence on eating endangered tuna species, as portrayed in the film, "The Cove." The common thread is ...
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Many American Companies Make Compromises in China
MARCH 13-- There's a lot of talk about how Google is making an ethical compromise by agreeing to filter out certain content from Internet searches performed by Chinese web-surfers. But Google is hardly the only company that had to make this kind of deal with ...
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Let’s Get Serious About Jobs
MARCH 12-- The United States needs to generate about 10 million jobs to make up for the awful damage that has been inflicted on the American worker, but there is a startling ignorance in the debate in Washington about what kind of jobs should be generated ...
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How Corning Innovates
This is my latest article for Strategy + Business. (http://www.strategy-business.com.) This is what I think Americans really need to be talking about--how do we innovate? And then how do we keep the jobs in the United States? Five Gates to Innovation Corning ...
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Consumer Spending--Waiting for Godot
Feb. 24--Economists and investors are surprised by the latest consumer confidence numbers, which have plunged. Newspapers today express concern that American consumers used to be world-class champions of buying, but they are damaged and they are not recovering ...
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Toyoda’s Testimony--Oh, What a Feeling … of Getting Even
Feb. 22--Akio Toyoda will testify before Congress Wednesday and I think it is only fair and fitting that he receive the same kind of treatment that the CEOs of American auto companies received. We all recall how congressmen and senators from the transplant ...
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My Take On Toyota’s Problems for BNET
Feb. 10--BNET has just published my account of what went wrong at Toyota: How Toyota Manufactured its Own Fall From Grace Once considered nearly infallible in the auto industry, Toyota shows how quickly a well-managed company can go off the rails. Here's the ...
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Toyota: More Cracks
Jan. 27, 2010--As I have been writing for months in this blog, and as I wrote in Why GM Matters, Toyota Motor is facing huge management challenges. And the decision to suspend the sale of eight models in the United States is the most powerful evidence to date. I've ...
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Backshoring: My Most Recent Article in Strategy + Business
Jan. 27-- The Case for Backshoring Which manufacturing operations should return to the United States? by William J. Holstein For years, the NCR Corporation simply followed the pack. Like many other large U.S. manufacturing companies, in the past couple of ...
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Japan Watch--Just Bring the Troops Out
Jan. 22--We're reading story after story about the presence of 50,000 American troops in Japan, most of them on the tiny island of Okinawa. The new Japanese government isn't sure how to handle the presence of American military bases in Okinawa, which irritate the ...
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Conan O’Brien--Where’s the Outrage?
Jan 21 -- We discover that NBC is paying $32.5 million to late night host Conan O'Brien to go away. Including some of his funny boys, NBC is paying out $40 million. I'm surprised we are not hearing howls of outrage about how much money that is. If it were a Chief ...
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