Adapt to thrive (you, me and the USA)

"Voltswagen" isn't such a bad idea, really, if it signals that we're flexible enough to meet the future.

Plucky, you might say, that stunt by Volkswagen just before April Fool’s Day, pretending to accidentally leak an announcement that its name will change to “Voltswagen” to mark its commitment to electric vehicles. Deceptive, but clever.

Yes, yes, I join in the journalistic outrage — and I’m shocked, shocked, I tell you — at the discovery of duplicity in corporate public relations. Though I would be more energized about it if we hadn’t just gone through four years of lie after lie each day from the White House, and about matters quite more consequential than the name of a car.

Besides, you have to hand it to a brand that’s determined not to go the way of the Studebaker without a fight. So what if it takes a little gimmickry to convince customers that it’s onto the next big thing? Made you look, didn’t they? I mean, right here, we’re talking about VW and electric cars, meaning that I, for one, have fallen for the gimmick.

But attention doesn’t always equal success, in business or anywhere…