Golden Opportunity Rejected By The Leaders Of Its Time And How The Opportunity Would Have Changed The Face Of America
Opportunities often present themselves to people. However, these opportunities come while they are still in their earliest stages. Most of these opportunities have to be cultivated for one to reap its benefits. To an ordinary non-visionary person, these opportunities may mean nothing to them. History is full of opportunities turned down by leaders, businesspeople, and other influential people who would have cultivated them and benefit not only themselves but also the people. The American history records several such lost opportunities which later became the leading businesses and enterprises in the world. This paper discusses one such golden opportunity rejected by the leaders of its time and how the opportunity would have changed the face of America had it exploited the chance.
In an attempt to improve the lifestyle of the ordinary German citizens, Hitler came up with the Volkswagen automobile industry. Volkswagen means the folk’s wagon (Gartman, 2014). The car was cheap and affordable for the low-income families. After the Second World War, Germany lay in ruins as did the Volkswagen Company. To their benefit, fortunately, the company lay on the American side. However, seeing no value in Volkswagen Company, handed over the company to the British which left the company under the supervision of Major Ivan Hirst (Gartman, 2014). Since Hirst was in charge of surviving Germans in that area, he decided to sell the vehicles abroad to enable him to fend for the survivors. The business became a hit. Hirst offered to sell the company to the then powerful nations among which was America (Gartman, 2014). However, these nations refused the industry focusing on producing expensive luxury cars and declining the Nazi technology (Zhang, 2017).
Cadillac is an American car production company that whose main production is luxury cars. The company started running as early as 22nd August 1902 under the leadership of its co-founders William Murphy, Lemuel Bowen, and Henry M. Leland. Right now, Cadillac runs under the General Motors (Young, 2017). Comparing its year of foundation to that of Volkswagen (1937), logically, Cadillac should have been the leading brand right now in the market. However, because of the high cost of luxury vehicles it produces, Cadillac still struggles to remain in the market.
Henry Ford started the Ford Motor Company and incorporated it on 16th June 1903. The company produces commercial vehicles as well as the luxury vehicle brands Ford and Lincoln (Pereira, 2017). Over the decades, this company has been among the leading automobile manufacturers. The company is still among the top ten best-selling car brands. However, market analysis recently shows a drop in the market cap of the Ford brand. In as much as it ranks as the third best-selling brand, Volkswagen ranked second by the first quarter of 2018.
The above illustrations show that if the Ford Company had bought Volkswagen, probably it would have been the leading brand in the world right now. Currently, Volkswagen remains one of the leading car sellers around the globe just because it started by making its brand popular by targeting the larger lower class population (Raj, 2017). The American and other nations’ car producers follow behind them; other brands are struggling to stay in the market, an example is the Pontiac brand under the General Motors.
In conclusion, it is worthy to note that some opportunities come only once. From the illustrations and discussions above, it is clear that America should have grabbed the opportunity that had presented itself then. Had the Americans accepted the offer by Ivan Hirst, with its lading world-class technology, America would have had the world’s best-selling brand. The American-origin brands would have avoided the stiff competition it is experiencing currently from the much famous Volkswagen. The livelihoods of the lower class citizens would have improved because initially, Volkswagen was targeting the lower class citizens.