ABOUT CAR-SMART.INFO

It’s a major question we face each day – how can we improve the quality and effectiveness of our decisions? How can we ensure positive future outcomes from the choices we make?

We know we can’t make all correct decisions – some will be correct and some will not.  What can we do to minimize the unfavorable consequences of poor choices while maximizing the positive outcomes of our good decisions.

We make virtually all of our decisions under some clouds of uncertainty. What we can do is put some holes in those clouds to let the enlightenment of solid facts drive away some of the uncertainty.

That’s where Car-Smart comes in. Car-Smart is an alliance of auto industry professionals – people of long experience in the OEM and supplier communities – who have experienced these decision quandaries and are ready to lend assistance to your situations.

The Car-Smart team is made up of experienced strategists with backgrounds in corporate planning, product and cycle planning, technology planning, and manufacturing. Much of their work has been at the VP and CEO levels.  All have international experience.

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Mission - Car-Smart’s Mission and Guiding Principles…

… are straightforward:

  • To collect, analyze and deliver,
  • The highest quality information and intelligence,
  • As quickly as possible,
  • At affordable prices.

But more important that that – we want to be sure that intelligence gets into the hands of people who can do something constructive with it. Rather than fill bookshelves with information, Car-Smart wants to help you make the best decisions possible.  You know your business … we’re experts in the “landscape”.

We use the term “intelligence” quite a bit.  To us, Intelligence = Information + Analysis. Good intelligence can reduce decision uncertainty.

Our approach to the information and intelligence scene is based on analytical processes developed over fifteen years – using the best aspects of military and civilian techniques – to serve effectively and efficiently our and your clients.

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Methodology - The Analytical Framework

Car-Smart looks at the auto industry holistically, focusing on three elements of the automotive landscape:
  1. Business intelligence
    • Who are the competing companies?
    • What are their goals?
    • Who are their leaders?
    • What are their resources…
    • …and how are they deployed?
  2. Product intelligence
    • What products are being built …
    • …and planned
    • …by whom
    • …for when
    • …and what are their characteristics?
  3. Technical intelligence
    • What new technology solutions are emerging…
    • …and how quickly and broadly are they likely to be adopted?

Using this holistic analysis model we are able to very quickly and effectively integrate disparate pieces of knowledge and information to reach actionable conclusions and recommendations.

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Ethics - Taking the High Road

Ethics are fundamental to our firm in all its business dealings. We understand the law with respect to intelligence activities – we know what is legal and what isn’t … and we avoid the latter.

We subscribe to the Canons of Ethics of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals – they are simple and effective boundaries for proper conduct.

Above all, we don’t do anything that could embarrass our clients. You may remember, a few years ago, the CEO of Oracle standing before national TV cameras, apologizing to Bill Gates because a private detective hired by Oracle resorted to sifting Microsoft’s trash in search of clues to Microsoft's corporate strategy.

“Dumpster diving” isn’t illegal in most places nor is it unethical.  But, it clearly brought embarrassment to Oracle.

We just don’t do that sort of thing.

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Value - How Does Car-Smart Bring It to Clients?

Car-Smart’s analytical context is classical:

  • Collection – finding the information that answers key business unknowns.
  • Analysis – assessing the implications of this information in your business context.
  • Dissemination – delivery of actionable intelligence quickly and affordably.

Car-Smart brings value by determining “what’s changing” … and “how fast”.

  • We look for emerging trends.
  • We determine growth and substitution rates – how quickly will a new feature or technology displace an existing one?
  • We look for the major strategic trends at very high levels – corporate, brand and within the automotive industry.

We interpret these trends in the context of your and your clients’ business decisions. As outlined earlier, business decisions are difficult enough – we remove a good deal of the uncertainty from the surrounding “landscape” to help you and your clients make the best decisions possible.

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The Bottom Line – What Are Your Decisions Worth?

This how Car-Smart works to help clients – with information and intelligence products of continuing high interest and importance to the auto industry.

  • You know what you know – that’s the inventory of information you’ve already gathered and analyzed.
  • You know some of what you don’t know – that’s why you have a variety of analysis projects going on at any given time.
  • But, there may be some important things you don’t know that you don’t know – and some of those could be like “icebergs” in an otherwise tranquil “sea” of business.

That’s where Car-Smart comes in – we know the competitive landscape in the automotive industry – and we’re ready to step up and help you minimize uncertainty and make the best decisions possible.

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