Chapter 4 presents some ideas for thinking about the resilience of firms in the auto industry.
a) an operations perspective, which looks at the ability of auto companies to design, build and distribute vehicles to competitive standards, as well as to manage the considerable complexity of a global auto firm.
b) a stakeholder perspective which recognises that auto firms are heavily "embedded" enterprises. By this we mean that they exist in a web of settlements with multiple stakeholders, such as labour, investors, suppliers, customers and the state.
c) the context of the industry. The auto industry is characterized by long-term over capacity, which squeezes margins. Consequently, car companies need to seek markets in which they can enjoy reasonable returns (eg niche segments, or rapidly growing markets) if they are to generate the returns necessary to fund renewal.