Hold a Gun to My Head, I'll Get Creative

Anyone who works in a creative field or uses creative services is familiar with the Eleventh Hour Syndrome. Given a creative brief, it's not until two weeks have passed, the presentation to the client is due tomorrow and the printer's out of ink that anything remotely creative happens. For some reason, time and resources hinder, not nurture, execution.

Who thought the same principle would apply to the US auto industry? The Big Three, not known for nimbly adapting to the marketplace (unless you count selling the same truck for thirty years as adapting to the marketplace), have finally shown up ten minutes before the deadline with some good ideas.

This month's Detroit North American Industry Auto Show seems to contain enough good ideas that one might actually stick and make it into production before the bridge loans are due. Clearly, innovation isn't the sole prerogative of the Big Three, it's just such a surprise because since the oil crisis of the 1970s, it's only been in the past three years that the light finally went on in the creative department.

I hope they can catch FedEx.