Both Visteon and Delphi have been in the news lately as each has either discussed or actually exercised some of its take back privileges with its respective former parent.

Both companies follow their parents' lead by saying they are looking for relief from high labor costs. Delphi sustained losses in three of its six years since being spun off from GM in 1999, including a $4.8 billion loss last year. Visteon has suffered similarly, if somewhat worse, during its brief history as a sort of separate entity of the leaky umbrella otherwise known as Ford. Meanwhile GM and Ford have offered an "Employee Discount" sale with great sales results. Unfortunately, the great sales are exacerbating their losses. The response heard is that it's clearing out excess inventory so they can crank up capacity again for 2006. You have to ask, "Why?"

Those of you schooled in root cause analysis know the "Five Why's" approach. Briefly, it means to keep asking "Why?" until the explanation given, or discovered, is the root cause. My five year old grandchild is already an expert at asking "Why?" He also knows that Grand Dad will continue to struggle to come up with another answer long after Mom has exclaimed, "Because I said so!" A child's persistence can reveal some interesting, albeit occasionally offbeat, answers.

If a five year old can do it, why then can't Delphi's, Visteon's, GM's, and Ford's management get past even the first "Why's?" response: labor and health care costs. Let's try to help them.

As any mother knows, the barrage of why's is usually preceded by a statement. For example, let's assume somebody at Ford or GM says, "We are losing money." The magnitude of the loss and the accuracy of the statement for each of these companies should amplify the ensuing crescendos of "WHY?"

Why # 1: "Why are you losing money?" - "Because our labor and benefit costs are too high." Many analysts and automotive veterans stop there. But let's go further.

Why # 2: "Why are the labor and benefits costs considered to be the reason for the huge losses?" - "Well", they might say, "because we always blame our problems on labor costs." Review the history of any domestic automotive company for the last fifty years if you don't believe me.

Why # 3: "Why do you always blame labor costs when you helped create the very 'problem' in the first place?" - After some soul searching they could say, "Because we don't know any other way to manage the business than what our forefathers thought us." Henry Ford, not Toyota, created JIT (efficient mass production). He, Sloan, McNamara and a few others established efficiency goals tied to work centers, capacity utilization at the expense of inventory, and passing on labor costs to the consumer.

Why # 4: "Why don't you know a better way to manage"? - Even more soul searching might reveal, "Because the domestic automotive industry is notorious for being closed minded and incestuous about how to run automotive companies." Look around and see how many automotive suppliers have hired a 30+ year veteran of Ford or GM (or of a supplier to Ford or GM) as a consultant to help them solve a problem. If they're so good, why are GM and Ford in such trouble?

Why # 5: "Why are you unwilling to be open and accepting of others' ideas?" - Digging very deeply, they might confess, "Because even though the world is passing us by and we're afraid of failure, new things are scary."

Let's see how many why's it took to get to the root cause: closed minded management that resists new thinking not steeped in automotive culture because they don't know how to deal with the changing economy and are frightened by the prospect of change. Son of a gun! It only took 5. It's amazing how the process works. Maybe GM and Ford need five year olds to ask the tough questions they've not answered to date. The challenge then is what does management do about it once they've gotten to the root cause?

There was an interesting announcement recently. Microsoft hired a Wal-Mart veteran to be its No. 3 executive, behind Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer. B. Kevin Turner, a top executive at Wal-Mart, was named Chief operating Officer at Microsoft, placing him in charge of sales. He will oversee Microsoft's sales and marketing unit in addition to the company's information technology and fulfillment operations. Mr. Turner's experience as both an IT savvy customer as well as his connection to the end user experience for Microsoft products bodes well for Microsoft as it grapples with new customer choices such Linux and other open-source software that has pressured Microsoft in recent years. Mr. Turner's appointment is an indication that Microsoft is obviously asking the tough questions and is not afraid to answer them in a creative, contemporary way.

If you are struggling with getting your costs down and your service up, don't hesitate to keep asking the really tough questions of yourself. And, if you sense you are stuck in a "this is the way we've always done it" rut, try something else even if it means risking the challenge of being creative.