It is an interesting human 'failing' that when all is running well, we tend to sit back and enjoy things.
The same applies to corporations, and to a lesser degree, smaller concerns.

They have a certain capacity to get work done, and little more than that, so, once the main capacity is about filled, then there is the decision to make on whether to expand the operation, this of course then leads to speculation on where the markets for the products and services are going to be positioned in, say, a year, two years, five years.
 
A good example of this would be the current Peak Oil situation. It would be obvious financial suicide right now for investors to help to create, say, a new full-size pickup truck manufacturing plant.

But things are not always as visible as that situation that I have used as an example above.

Corporations tend to get leaner and meaner during hard times, but this raises other questions - it is like a long distance runner - he or she can go fairly fast for a long time, and no doubt can go faster for shorter periods. So the lean and mean situation is probably not so sustainable over the long haul.

As the efficiency increases though, there might well also be a trend towards better customer service, as production is shared by fewer customers.
As sales fall, there arises the possibility of a corporate failure, and it is at these times that the public might remember any bad service that occurred with a particular company, such as in the past where Chrysler Corporation have been featured in TV documentaries where they display what appears to be cost-calculated refusal to stand by a poorly designed and performing product such as some of their transmissions. This might bite them in the butt.

With their detachment from the European Daimler company, they might have made themselves vulnerable to a North American delayed backlash effect from their past irate customers, once the industry is into a non-expansion situation, where offended customers can no longer be simply replaced by greater sales efforts and budget directed at new potential customers.

It will be interesting to see if they are still around in 5 years time - or will it be GM that bites the dust? Certainly the GM advertising, with a jock type guy saying 'I want to grow my fuel, not drill for it" seems to indicate an intent to keep on producing more of what worked in the past but will probably not work in the future, despite attempt by the GM spin doctors to indicate otherwise.

 

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