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Uncuffed empowers people in California prisons to tell their own stories. The award-winning collaboration between incarcerated student producers and professional journalists shines light on the human experience of people before, during, and after their prison terms. The new Season 4 is hosted by formerly incarcerated producer Greg Eskridge. https://www.WeAreUncuffed.org
Content provided by Rick Brown. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Rick Brown or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
Content provided by Rick Brown. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Rick Brown or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
This episode touches on the final steps toward leaving Chieko and starting work in Japan. It offers brief descriptions on how I settled down in Japan, and got things rolling with Suzuki. It was definitely a period of mix emotions. On one hand, the divorce. And on the other end, a start of my very fulfilling ten-year journey with Suzuki and GM Japan. I have a feeling I will eventually revist this period again in the future to re-examine myself as an individual, and reflect on the experience.…
Here I am in the final quarter of the 20th century, things are happening. I am heading to Japan. My family isn't sure at this point. I finished my seven+ years in Europe, starting with the initial assignment to be part of the Eisenach project team, four years in Zurich, and ending with the Agila responsibility (which I carried with me to Japan). Thinking back (24 years later), this puts me at the half way point of my GM career. My last phase is starting, the remaining 15 years. Asia was the stompiong ground, and here I am, embarking on a journey that nearly as good as the time I had in Europe. This episode is one of reflection of the European years and how I arrived at this point.…
Last episode on Opel Agila project, a joint program with Suzuki Motor Company. The episode covers topics that are a bit esoteric. Hibi san and Arno, both involved in the project from the very beginning, shared a ton of input based on their experience: both parties learning from each other, highlighting differences though both are car companies. From here, my career heads to Asia. First to Japan, and then to China. The march continues.…
This episode is a quick summary of this new program covering key pieces from MoU to design to production preparedness. Family issues also entered big time as I transfered my work post from Switzerland to Germany to take on the responsibility as the VLE for the Agila program. As always, lots of ups and downs. But we now have a team set up in Japan; in fact secured a corner section on Suzuki's engineering floor. I bet that had never happened before.…
Though regardless of my formal position, I had always been pulled into GM Europe's discussions with Suzuki from the very beginning. As this potential collaboration became closer to a reality, I found myself basically devoting most of my time and emergy to ongoing discussions. Then once Opel and Suzuki agreed to do the program, I was assigned as the European head of the program. The vehicle was called Opel Agila, and I became the Regional Vehicle Line Executive of this joint program. I would not call this a joint vehicle "development" program since Suzuki took the lead in engineering, however, the program required significant interactions between the two companies involving many memorable and talented people on both sides. And my role in this program eventually moved to Japan as a result of a dynamic shift in the reformation of the global automotive industry sparked by a merger between Chrysler and Daimler Benz. It could not get any more exciting than this, and I found myself right in the thick of alliance formation discussions. This episode describes the beginning of the Opel Agila program and my involvement in it.…
Summer is here, and not so easy to devote a good quiet time to work on episodes. This one took almost two months to complete since the last one. Sorry for the delay. I have talked about being in Switzerland and my training role before and this episode sort of covers the transition into other areas, namely vehicle tracking and eventually to actual vehicle development. Nakada san who was recruited from Toyota by GMIO really served as my mentor and played a key role in expanding my involvement in those new areas. He was very instrumental in capapulting my career progression. As I note toward the end of this episode, I eventually move on to a joint vehicle program Suzuki, which in turn takes my career path toward Japan; a very dynamic stage in my times at GM.…
I came to Zurich to take on a role as Director of Training and Organizational Development, thinking this assignment would last, at most, three years, and I would move on. Around this time, GM embarked on three major initiatives, and here in Europe, similar changes followed. One was the establishment of a position called Vehicle Line Executive. Another one was the introduction of a concept, Brand Management. And lastly, Opel took steps to closely monitor vehicle development processes in a much more transparent way than ever before. At the same time, the whole industry saw a trend toward alliance formations, primarily for the reason of sharing resources and eliminate redundancies. Though I was in the training area, by virtue of being close to those leading these changes, I got swept up in this dynamic. The Zurich assignment became more than just a three-year stint as a trainig leader. In this episode, however, the content zeroes in on the training role and the scope of actions undertaken primarily in Europe to spread the Eisenach lean production principles.…
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