Proton's Exora and new Saga were awarded Best Automotive Debut Model of the Year and Best Passenger Model of the Year, respectively, by Frost & Sullivan at the 2010 Malaysia Excellence Awards held on 12 May 2010. Proton's communications team quickly spun it as acknowledgment of Proton car quality.
So, if Protons are so good, why does the national car company still require market protection? What's amiss here?
Well, if you go to the Frost & Sullivan media release webpage, you'll see that the award is not really about car quality. The 2010 Frost & Sullivan Malaysia Excellence Awards are based on a variety of actual market performance indicators, which include revenue growth; market share and growth in market share; leadership in product innovation; marketing strategy and business development strategy. If product quality is a component, it really is not the only one.
Plus, the award is given to Malaysian companies only. If it were open to international companies like VW, Toyota, Honda, etc, one seriously doubts that Proton would have received the Frost & Sullivan Excellence Awards.
As much as I'd like to be patriotic about Proton, I can't help but think, again and again, that Malaysians are being taken for a ride. With such paltry returns, relative to other government link corporations, of RM285 million before taxation for FY2010, one can't help but ask, "Is Proton really maximising shareholder value by existing the way it does today?"
Without market protection, Proton is not competitive. This comes with a second whammy, in that with market protection, Proton can continue to be complacent and inefficient in managing product quality and its supply chain, the two key factors that are causing it to be uncompetitive in the first place.
So, now we wait for something bad to happen to Proton before something good comes out of this Proton debacle.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment