New GM Chairman

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I like this quote.

“We look forward to working with him to complete the reinvention of G.M. and maximize the enormous potential of this new enterprise,” Mr. Kresa said.
 
Man, these guys have more freakin lives than an aluminum can. What is the constant attraction for companies to move a CEO from one industry to another? There is no relationship between the auto industry and a communication company. It's like CEO means you are qualified to run anything.. My wife is working on her PhD, in business. That doesn't mean she could do surgery just because she is titled "Doctor". I'm with PBM... I'm just not certain I could support GM, and I've been driving them since 1984.
 
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From what I know about him, I think he is an excellent choice. He is the guy that came from SBC. He built SBC into a market leader (bought PAC Bell and others). SBC then bought Bell South & AT&T (which was on the brink of bankruptcy) and turned it back into a very profitable market leader with a real future.

He is a no [censored] kind of guy focused on the customer, product and profitability. If he can not turn GM around, I have serious doubts that anyone can.
 
All he'll have to do is instruct his CFO to do some forecasts, identify the profit makers and the loss offenders within the GM car family, give that data to marketing, who will pass it down to engineering and then the designers get what's left. That's how a former telecom CEO will get things done at an ailing carmaker.

Oh, and don't forget kissing the union president's shoes between conference calls.
 
Originally Posted By: beanoil
Man, these guys have more freakin lives than an aluminum can. What is the constant attraction for companies to move a CEO from one industry to another? There is no relationship between the auto industry and a communication company. It's like CEO means you are qualified to run anything.. My wife is working on her PhD, in business. That doesn't mean she could do surgery just because she is titled "Doctor". I'm with PBM... I'm just not certain I could support GM, and I've been driving them since 1984.
I disagree... GM never listened to their customers in the past, so some "Communication" expertise might do them some good!
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An outsider is a good thing. But I would have preferred someone with more experience in manufacturing, and with a stronger engineering background. Someone like . . . Alan Mulally.

Telecoms and automakers are very different creatures. GM is not going to be fixed by a series of M&As.
 
I have an advanced degree in chemistry. When I retired several years ago,m the newCEO (from GE, no less) was saying that the company did not need scientists as everything they knew "was on the Internet." No wonder companies are in such bad shape. How many of us would go to a hairdresser to have our bowel cancer treated? After all, all the methodology is "on the Internet".
 
Bean counters and out of industry CEOs are sometimes acceptable choices for a successful company with an established management culture. Keep an already well-running ship on course, and nothing more. Do no harm.

But for companies that are FUBAR, like GM has become, you need someone who can tear down the operating structure to the foundations and rebuild it to function properly. That requires knowledge of the nuances of the business model. GM is a manufacturing business. A guy who grew his telecom business by orchestrating mergers with other telecoms doesn't seem to fall into that genre. Unless they're going to merge GM into Ford at some point.

Bear in mind, though, that this was a chairman selection. The board chair is not the same as the president. The latter should be making the day to day decisions that really matter. That selection remains to be made.
 
I don't see where is much worse of a risk than what was running the company. I agree that the basic idea is the same. Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to look at a situation to get a change. Just throwing another auto guy in there probably won't change a thing. He certainly couldn't do any worse that Wagoner did.
 
Originally Posted By: Cardinal49
From what I know about him, I think he is an excellent choice. He is the guy that came from SBC. He built SBC into a market leader (bought PAC Bell and others). SBC then bought Bell South & AT&T (which was on the brink of bankruptcy) and turned it back into a very profitable market leader with a real future.

He is a no [censored] kind of guy focused on the customer, product and profitability. If he can not turn GM around, I have serious doubts that anyone can.



LOL...what department of the US government do you work for? Obviously you never had phone service with SBC.
 
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Originally Posted By: Volvohead
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/business/10auto.html?_r=1&hp

I have my doubts.


I have gone from having doubts to actually looking forward to the entertainment value of watching them go down the tubes.
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Let's do the math here:

(Bankrupt GM + New UAW majority Owner) + (Stoopid Ex-CEO from SBC)= ( USPS / Amtrak) x $50 billion
= Economic disaster
 
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Originally Posted By: 65cuda
I don't see where is much worse of a risk than what was running the company. I agree that the basic idea is the same. Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to look at a situation to get a change. Just throwing another auto guy in there probably won't change a thing. He certainly couldn't do any worse that Wagoner did.


Don't underestimate Whitacre, he has the potential of being worse for the auto industry than Wagner.
 
Ok...forget all of that. How many of you would hire a guy and pay him millions of dollars if the first statement he made was " Hi, I don't know anything about the products of the huge corporation I am about to lead". I mean really....wouldn't anybody really know better than to go to the national media and pull down their pants and show their underwear on day 1??
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Originally Posted By: 65cuda
I don't see where is much worse of a risk than what was running the company. I agree that the basic idea is the same. Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to look at a situation to get a change. Just throwing another auto guy in there probably won't change a thing. He certainly couldn't do any worse that Wagoner did.


You mean even if he says..."Ok where do they put the round wheel thingys?"
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OR what if he asks " Where is this CAFE' I have heard so much about?...I'd like to get a latte"
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Many of the upper echelon of CEOdom are convinced that you don't need to know anything about what your company produces.
 
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