Cars and Environmental Fit: Size Matters

Peter Egan has been writing for Road & Track magazine for several decades. He is an outstanding and thoughtful writer, as well as an engaging story teller. His column in this month's R&T (http://www.roadandtrack.com/column/dog-years-and-englishmen) was as interesting as always, but it also provided some though-provoking ideas on global business.

Egan talks of the merits of British and American cars of the 1950's, as restoration projects and in general. He notes that British cars of that era are somewhat temperamental, and were not designed with ease of maintenance in mind. They were also smaller, of course. He attributes these differences in part to the nature of the country (an island a fraction of the size of the good ol' USA) and their roads (narrow, winding, and brief, as opposed to broad, straight, and heading off into the sunset.)

It makes perfect sense and it's consistent with the idea that businesses must adapt to their environment in order to succeed. Cars and trucks in the U.S. continue to be much larger, on balance, than just about anywhere else. When a firm moves to a new environment, it's not just a matter of bringing a great idea across a border. It's unlikely that a 1950's Cadillac with a trunk so large that it would nearly accommodate an MG Midget would have sold well in England or Europe at that time. (When Briggs Cunningham brought a Caddie to race at Le Mans in 1950 it was nicknamed "Le Monstre".)

Environmental adaptation is a key to international business success. A move abroad to a very different environment often requires a firm to move from being a major brand to a niche provider, in order to maintain the status or perception of a global brand. Cadillac, for example, actually lengthened their STS full-sized vehicle for the Chinese market, looking to serve the niche market for chauffeur driven vehicles there. If you're Cadillac, when you go overseas, you go big or go home. Thank goodness, too, for people like Peter Egan. He's created his own interesting niche with unique writing and a love of old British sports cars.