Talking about stepping down in five years is frankly not a topic of particular actuality now.
Being in a multicultural environment in childhood is going to give you intuition, reflexes and instincts. You may acquire basic responsiveness later on, but it's never going to be as spontaneous as when you have been bathing in this environment during childhood.
You have to listen to the people who have a negative opinion as well as those who have positive opinion. Just to make sure that you are blending all these opinions in your mind before a decision is made.
We continue to be bullish on China.
We are not making a capital investment into GM as the first element or condition.
I approve designs not because I think I am more gifted or somebody who can see ahead three or four years from now, but just to make sure that the design is a logical, rational decision, taken after analyzing pros and cons.
To face deflation, you have to have people accepting it and not reacting to it.
You have to be careful to react when you start to deviate from your course.
Cars have a large engine in the front and you have a gearbox, which is cumbersome. Electric cars don't have this problem. The motor is much smaller, the battery is below you. This will allow you to play with different shapes.
Electric cars are not going to take the market by storm, but it's going to be a gradual improvement.
Electric cars are going to be very important for urban transportation.
The time is right for electric cars - in fact the time is critical.
When your results are good, you are obviously going to have a lot of press. And when you start to falter a little bit, you are going to have some criticism, and there is nothing abnormal in that.
At the age of 20 I bought a used Fiat 127. This was the only one I could afford!
You'll never convince me there is a hopeless situation or there is any finality in any success or any failure.
I would say a good leader brings results. A great leader writes a new story, it's different. Obviously a new story has to incorporate a lot of results. But a story is a chapter in the life of a company that people want to write and want to remember.
The Japanese people are usually very prudent, even when they are convinced change is necessary.
There are always lessons that can be learned from another manufacturer. You can learn from their successes and from their mistakes also. But you cannot replicate; you can only learn.
Every single time you make a merger, somebody is losing his identity. And saying something different is just rubbish.
I mean, when you're a pioneer and you are at the forefront of an offensive, you're going to be the most optimistic person.
