GM News

GM Shero: Crosby has not 'shut down' offseason training

Amidst rumours that Sidney Crosby 's lingering concussion issues may have him still sitting into the start of next season, Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ray Shero told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review there's been nothing that has forced their star captain from shutting down his offseason training regimen.

But Shero did say that Crosby has had some recurrence of concussion symptoms.

"There are going to be some symptoms with this injury, but nothing where he's had to shut it down or anything," Shero told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Sunday, adding that he was in contact with Crosby over the weekend.

"He's pushed himself, which is good."

Crosby hasn't played in a game since Jan. 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was diagnosed with a concussion and has yet to be cleared for contact skating.

Shero told the Tribune-Review that clearance would not be sought by the player and team until at least a week before training camp, which opens Sept. 16.

"There's never been a situation where he's needed to be cleared to play," Shero explained.

The concern arose when NHL Home Ice radio producer Josh Rimer posted a message on Twitter that stated Crosby would not be ready to start the upcoming season.

On his Twitter page (@JoshRimerHockey), the message read: "Also hearing from 3 sources now that Sidney Crosby won't b ready 2 start season. I hope its not true because the NHL needs its best players!"

Shero did confirm that Crosby remains cleared to train regularly without contact. He has been working out at various local rinks in Halifax since mid-July.

The Penguins GM said Crosby will not be pushed to join the Penguins for on-ice practices at camp - or even when the regular season is scheduled to open for them on Oct. 6 in Vancouver.

"I'm only interested in making sure he's comfortable when he returns to play, end of story," Shero told the Tribune-Review. "I'm about the bigger picture with this thing."

Shero said Crosby has 'seemed good' during their conversations.

You Seriously Want To Be Like Apple, GM? | Auto car news

Don’t try to be like Apple. The secret to branding is to create ye olde Unique Selling Proposition. You don’t want to emulate a produce department of wannabe Apples. Not unless you have read and observed that other USP when taking medications. It’s not THOSE tablets we are after.

You don’t want to be like Apple, GM. Apples rot if left unsold for a few weeks.

You want to be the biggest, baddest, and most successful car company in the universe.

For that, you need something simple, yet hard:

You want your own good ideas.

Or in the words of another trite but true campaign:

You don’t want to be like Apple. Try harder.

The thing about Apple that almost nobody gets is that even when their competitors as a group control more of the market than they do, they’re moving more units with fewer model variations and more platform commonality than any single competitor. Apple has very few distinct models, and Mac OS X and iOS share large amounts of code and many common engineers, which means there are more platform economies of scale than any other competitor. This means that they can afford a much higher capital investment into each model and into their platform as a whole, making things like the aluminum unibody construction of the Macs or the expensive glass front and back of the iPhone possible at a price which is competitive with the bulkier and less well made competition.

If GM wants to be like Apple, they need to cut the number of individual models they sell dramatically and focus on having no more than two or three platforms that form the basis of the entire model line. They should have just a very small number of distinct engines in order to focus on building economies of scale on each one. There should be no brand variations within a single region as having separate brands with distinct product just reduces the amount by which you can spread around your up-front investment into any given model.

Somehow I don’t think that GM will be doing this any time soon.

Brian- you have a really good point about Apple’s focus on unique product features (aluminum unibody construction, etc) and its ability to drive down price through minimal product variation.

The thing I’d like to add to that is Apple’s amazing record of new product introduction. Because that depends on a very wide variance in functionality- from GUI-driven computers to iPods to iPhones. Each has a very different core functionality from what came before (User interface vs. portable music playing vs. telephone calls).

CIO

Civic hopes and political realities, immigrants, community organizations, and political engagement

Automotive news GM 75th anniversary issue

Broadcasting & cable

Understanding Management