guionM

GM has alot of good things in the pipeline, has done a great job on getting quality up, has top people in top spots. The bad thing is that they are all getting the blame over GM's current meltdown.

The unfortunate thing about GM is that it takes 5 years or more before decisions are felt. That means if someone inherited the company from someone who ran it well, they could run GM into the ground & be well into retirement with a fat bonus for good performance by the time things hit the fan. It happened from Roger Smith. It’s happening now from Ron Zarella.



I feel for GM CEO Rick Wagoner. He inherited a company that was headed over the falls, but has done an almost perfect job of getting GM moving. However, he’s likely to wind up being the fall guy over all this.

He convinced the board of directors to help him in buying top drawer talent and granting freedoms to designers & engineers while emphasizing product over the quarterly profit statement. He’s been honest enough to actually say he doesn’t know as much about product as he’d like, and has delegated to a lot of great upper level people. If Zarella had done the same, GM would be at the top of it’s game today.

I do blame is GM’s structure. There has been plenty of people who tried to tame the beast. H. Ross Perot sold his business to GM and in return, became a vice chairman , determined to streamline GM. He was pushed out after having his attempts frustrated at every turn.

I don’t blame Bob Lutz. He has done a splendid job at every position he’s ever been in. He’s been in a top level position in everything from Ford & Chrysler to Opel and BMW Yet at GM he seems to be reduced to second guessing the guys that second guess him by using cheaper materials than initially specified, running blocker to get the Cobalt & Solstice to market, and trying to hold GM Europe together while they were looking for someone to run it.

I can’t blame GM’s board of directors to a large degree, because they are on board with the rest of upper management in agreeing to focus on getting their cars right than penny pinching every ounce of profit. They know that better cars today mean increased sales tomorrow.

What I do blame is a GM structure.

Ford GT vs Pontiac Solstice:
*Both cars were on display as a concept at the same time.
*Both cars are given the fast track to production
*The production Ford GT had to be completely done from scratch.
*The production Solstice uses a lot of existing parts and technology.
*The Ford GT comes to market before the Solstice even gets approved!
*GM announces Solstice has been approved in Ford’s GT’s 2nd production year.
*Solstice reached market the 2nd half of 2005, just in time for the GT’s last year of production.

GM North America is already screwing up Holden, but that’s another story.

poSSum

So if you don't blame the directors, and you don't blame Rick or Bob ...and I assume the rest of the C*O's .....

...who's is charge of "structure"?

dav305z

Beleive it or not, there are a lot of people on the internet calling for Lutz's head. Can you beleive that?! Imagine, they want the one guy who seems to know what he's doing out of the company!
Oh well, so Guion, since you seem to be privy to a lot of things going on inside the company, how close to the edge are they? A lot of the articles you read these days make it seem as if GM is teetering towards bankruptcy. Is it that bad? Are they cutting future models?
I think things will pick up once the new models establish themselves and especially after the trucks come along, but this year won't be pretty. I am also quite a bit dissapointed in the fact that out of all their releases from last year, only the Cobalt looks like an honest to goodness competitor.

jg95z28

No one, and everyone.

That's part of the problem. Without one person with enough juice to call all the shots, GM is caught up in bureaucratic chaos. They are almost like a government agency. There are a lot of bad corporate decisions made by midlevel managers, each with their own piece if the pie, only caring for their piece and not the whole pie. What works on a departmental level, may not be what the corporation needs as a whole.

The "structure" of GM needs to change, refocus and streamline if they are going to survive.

guionM

And there's the $1000 question.

Honestly, I think no one and everyone.

Seems everyone has their own fifedom that even the top guys (including Lutz) has to bargain with or end run around to get things done.

Rick Wagoners was in favor of a Cadillac coupe. It's still tied up. Ron Zarella had to move all h*ll and high mountains to get Cadillac money for the CTS, and to keep it's design from being watered down.

97z28/m6

so why don't they put one guy in charge?

Bob Cosby

Leadership by committee has never been effective. Someone has to be given free reign and then allowed to run with it.

jg95z28

I nominate Red Planet for the job.

Abidar

Best suggestion I've heard in a while.

I second that nomination.

0toinsanein5.4sec

Another thing to blame is the media. The media bashes GM a lot for absolutely no reason and if they dont bash them they choose inferior cars in comparison.

We are all well aware of the C&D mustang vs GTO article. THe fact is the average joe who may be looking for a sports coupe and doesnt care about cars but just wants a cool one reads that article and only that article. and although GTO wins in everything it still loses the got to have it factor. so what doest that guy and many others do? buy the Fing mustang. why? becayse C&D told him its cooler.

another thing i saw on Speed TV when they went to an autoshow i think it may have been NAIAS this season. This is what one of the person said about i think the new impala. She sais some good stuff about it. ok fine. but she cant admit that its GM and is a good product so she looks for something to nitpick about. so she finds that there is a whole in the door/dash for the airconditioning vent which is in the door. She says "in a market where most cars have the ac vents in dash the new impala has it in the door leaving a whole there for a kid to put his finger in." WTF ARE U SERIOUS. THAT IS THE DUMBEST THING I HAD EVER HEARD. THIS CAR IS GREAT BUT DONT BUY IT BC OF THE AC VENT BEING IN THE DOOR!!!! GIVE ME A BREAK

91_z28_4me

All in Favor...


AYE!