The New GM

Upon General Motor’s exit from bankruptcy today, CEO Fritz Henderson said that the company will be leaner and quicker, ready to meet the challenges of the 21st-century automobile industry.

Let’s take a look at this “new era” for GM, shorn as it is of the “old ways” of doing things and totally remade as a modern industrial juggernaut, smart, savvy, and on the move:

Frederick “Fritz” Henderson
Chief Executive Officer

Fritz is like a breath of fresh air, having only joined GM in 1984.  Prior to that, he was a child.

Fritz’s many accomplishments since joining GM include being steeped in a corporate culture that prized conformity, overseeing a nearly uninterrupted decline in domestic market share from over 36% to under 20% today, and having served in top management in the years leading up to the company’s complete failure.

Ed Whitacre
Chairman of the Board

Ed “I Don’t Know Anything About Cars” Whitacre was brought out of retirement from AT&T and will bring to GM the kind of customer-service focus you can only get from spending your entire career working for a phone company.

“You need some warranty work?  No problem. One of our technicians will be happy to meet with you the Tuesday after next sometime between the hours of 6 AM and 2 PM.  Unless he gets held up on another call.”

“Can I interest you in purchasing a new horn tone for your car for only $.99? Maybe a second set of floor mats in designer colors?”

UAW
United Auto Workers Union

This isn’t the Auto Workers Union of old you’ve heard so much about, with their high pay and lavish benefits. No, this is a leaner, meaner, UAW that won’t be getting the Monday off after Easter.

Sure, it's tough, but they really had little choice.  Had GM gone into a real bankruptcy liquidation (as opposed to the “Barackuptcy” it just went through), union members would have lost that Monday off anyway.

Bob Lutz
Vice Chairman
Responsible for all creative elements of new products and customer relationships.

Bob Lutz is legendary in the automotive field, having had a long career with Chrysler back before it was bankrupt and having worked for GM from 2001 until its bankruptcy.  In fact, the only major domestic automaker Bob Lutz never worked for was Ford. 

Which has not gone bankrupt. 

Bob Lutz is most recently noted as the driving force behind the innovative plug-in Chevy Volt. No doubt, Bob’s return promises more vehicles like the Volt, which the White House has hailed as being “too little, too late and too expensive.”

As you can see, the only way you’ll ever get change at GM, and we mean real, lasting change, is to assemble a team of the exact same people who spent their careers wrecking the place the first time around. 

And a guy from the telephone company.

The New GM:  Just like the Old GM.

Only with your money.

J.