The market's attitude becomes, in effect, a self-fulfilling prophecy. Employees are also reacting to the industry's fading presence by taking jobs that are higher-paying and more desirable in terms of image. Attracting young professionals is getting harder as well. Losing in the war for talent is especially insidious because without top-notch people, a company also loses the base of strength it needs to satisfy its other stakeholders. All this is of course not news to the automotive industry.
Most companies are well aware that they've got to do something to improve their attractiveness.
Not very, at least in the eyes of the market. Both Daimler and Chrysler shares went up on the news of the merger, for instance, but the initial rush was soon replaced by the reality that getting bigger was good, but it also meant a major integration effort. At the same time, new entrants using their own infrastructure might well further threaten profitability. It could work. In the past, vertical integration combined with indirect distribution and servicing made sense as long as transaction and interaction costs were very high, and proximity to the customer was measured in terms of miles.