Culture and the Practice of Business History

Abstract

prominent story about American cars, which now average 3.5 cupholders per vehicle, The article featured Detroit marketing gurus patting themselves on the back for giving customers what they wanted, conveniences like coat hooks, storage bins, and the supreme fetish, the cupholder. With only a hint of irony they touted their sensitivity to the market, implicitly contrasting themselves with the arrogant old managers of yesteryear, who with wanton disregard for safety and dry-cleaning, let coffee spill freely inside their cars. Now, who is to say that these inexpensive little gadgets might not yield, on a discounted cash flow basis, a higher return than Honda's new engine? To be fair, the article pointed out that the Japanese compensate for the cupholder gap with superior coin holders, made from long experience in a country with numerous toll roads. Yet it is all too easy to imagine three years from now Detroit