European aerospace giant Airbus has been running into all kinds of problems recently, including the embarrassing delay of its A380 superjumbo jet and a major shakeup of its senior management team. Which makes it all the more surprising that some European business execs - including Christoph Mohn, heir to the Bertelsmann media empire - are calling for Europe to create “an Airbus of the Internet.” Yep, that’s right. The Europeans apparently think a bloated, state-supported company can take on the likes of Google, eBay, Yahoo and Amazon. As Daniel Gross of Slate explains, this idea is “really stupid” for two reasons:

(1) The notion that European governments could will into being a competitor to eBay or Google conflicts with pretty much everything we know about how consumer-driven internet businesses grow;

(2) Airbus is a disaster just now. Literally speaking, an “Airbus of the Internet” would mean a company that loses ground to its U.S. competitor, is plagued by product delays, and has an untenable ownership structure.

Tags: Airbus Internet innovation Europe

[image: Airbus A380]

Yesterday, there was a great article in the Wall Street Journal (link via MoneyWeb) about BMW and its new strategy of relying on innovation and design rather than engineering to sell its cars to U.S. consumers:

“For well over a decade, BMW has focused its marketing almost exclusively on its cars’ German engineering and technical sophistication, and targeted its message to one very specific customer group — upscale auto enthusiasts. In a break with that formula, the company is promoting a corporate culture of independence and innovation. One advertisement in a new campaign that has turned heads in the auto industry highlights the design by architect Zaha Hadid that BMW chose for a striking glass-walled factory in Leipzig, Germany. BMW hopes the approach will broaden its position in market share and appeal to a group the company calls “the idea class” — upscale car-buyers who are swayed more by artistic values than horsepower.”

BMW’s primary strategic imperative, of course, is to fend off competitors like Nissan’s Infiniti unit, Honda’s Acura unit and Toyota’s Lexus brand, all of which now offer “credible performance vehicles for far less money.” The big wake-up call for BMW was an internal study that indicated a whopping 73.7% of U.S. consumers who bought luxury cars in 2004 didn’t even consider BMW. (In a related finding, 73.7% of college frat boys didn’t consider wearing one of those annoying BMW logo “Ultimate Party Machine” t-shirts in 2004.)

What do you think - will appealing to the so-called ‘idea class’ mean that BMW will be able to sell more cars in the U.S.? (Oh - in case you’re wondering, the “idea class” is indeed a direct riff on Richard Florida’s concept of the “creative class”)

Tags: BMW idea class innovation design

[image: The BMW factory at Leipzig]