Comments

GM hiring Tiger Woods for the Buick brand is beyond me - shame on both of them - time to retire Tiger/Buick, cut losses.

Posted by Sean at June 9, 2005 10:35 AM

here's something i already shared with "cool friend" seth godin this morning in an e-mail:

"Seth,

I'm writing to you because I'm upset at GM. Upset as a marketer. How does GM have the nerves to continue running its massive "employee discount" campaign right after the announcement that they are going to lay off 25,000 of their workers. It's insensitive, it's rude. Every time I see an ad I am reminded of those 25,000 families that will be affected by the layoffs. What is GM trying to tell me? "We don't treat our loyal workers well. We'll treat you just the same!"

Sorry for the rant.

-dave"

thoughts?

Posted by dave at June 9, 2005 11:16 AM

I watched the oil/energy companies merge and merge and merge a few years ago. Noted the closed energy policy meetings of Cheney and knew some time ago that the cost for energy was going to go up. I looked at the car lots and noticed more and more big SUV's and thought they are going to get stung. I now drive by the same lot and they are giving you 10k off the same chunky steel gas guzzlers. How come I saw it and they couldn’t? Remember the 70's? Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.

Posted by Gary Fox at June 9, 2005 1:43 PM

My Favorite Lee Iacocca Story

Lee Iacocca wanted convertibles but the engineers said no, the salesmen said no, the dealers said no, the plants said no. Lee said “Yes, if you have to take a can opener and pull the tops off each car, we are having convertibles”.

Ah, Leadership...

Posted by RTodd at June 9, 2005 2:00 PM

Anyone other than me find if a source of encouragement that a marketing person was the driving force behind such significant change?! :)

Lee's story is definitely an encouragement to what I do. Unfortunately, GM probably has someone like Lee they're not allowing to work as he/she could and influence major change.

Posted by Tony May / Mayday Media at June 9, 2005 3:58 PM

Yes, And, doncha know all the GM employees are all just atwitter and aglow with highly creative "think outside the box" fervor to revitalize the company. Of course, the CEO and the rest of Mahoghany Row will still make their $$$. As Annie Lamott says, "It's enough to make Jesus drink warm gin out of the cat dish."

Posted by Mary Schmidt at June 9, 2005 5:28 PM

Well boss,

Stemple was our great hope...he was a car guy, not from financial and Wagoner spent some time in OD for Saturn. The truth of the matter is that they are holding on to a very old paradigm. We basically taught the world capitalism and mass production...they got better than us. Shame on us.
With GM, it has long been the issue that GM makes their cash from GMAC..they lost focus on the transportation stuff. Tom, you know Jerry Hirschberg, left as VP of Design at Buick (think torpedo rear end) and started Nissan Design Institute...it speaks volumes that Jerry couldn't fit into the GM bureaucracy, and that his model of building an organization built on innovation took root at Nissan. Good people boss, bad systems...going to take some real courage to change things and not sure Wagoner has it...

Posted by Mike Neiss at June 9, 2005 6:55 PM

If GM's management would make Jesus drink warm gin out of a cat dish, then the management of RoverMG here in England would definitely encourage him to sample the tasty treats in the dish beside it!

Among other stupendously idiotic decisions, they sold the brand to some very clever Chinese horse traders for peanuts and then couldn't figure out why China wouldn't buy the rest of the company from them when it was revealed they'd run it into the ground.

They're out of business now and thousands of people are out of a job. Nice car too.

Posted by Noel Guinane at June 9, 2005 6:59 PM

Among the best all time autobiographies I have read include..
1. Iacocca: An Autobiography
2. Made in Japan by Akio Morita

These books STILL inspire me..wonder why such great leaders dont inspire people in GM or FORD!! Just dont understand corporate America..

Posted by Paradox Valley at June 10, 2005 1:54 AM

'Body and Soul' by Anita Roddick - founder of the Body Shop is a classic - inspiring and simple - one of my all itme favourite books.

The reason ideas like Anita Roddick won't 'go to' places that need them is that those places either don't know they need them or refuse to accept they need them .. if you get my drift :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at June 10, 2005 8:29 AM

Just a GM detail. I believe the agony that surrounds all things GM in the US comes at a time when it's European Operations are bucking the trend in an equally difficult car market. Maybe there's an Alex Trotman type lurking over here (in GM Europe) who can revive their fortunes?

Posted by Richard King at June 10, 2005 10:11 AM

I to love the Iacocca story about the convertable decision. It was a slightly different version but still reveiled the command and knowledge he had that got Chrysler back on its feet.

Another favorate of mine is from Henry Ford's decision to build the River Rouge complex. When asked if he wished to proceed, he asked his accountant how much cash they had. Since there was more cash than the cost to build the steel making facility, he told them to build it. No corporate studies and reviews, nothing. Just build the darn thing. And they did! The rest is history. I wonder if he is turning over in his grave to see his company in its present plight.

Posted by Al True at June 10, 2005 2:51 PM

The pathetic state of the GM FastLane blogoid is a warning about how messed up the company must be.

I love GM and have all my life bought almost nothing but GM cars. Own one now. But that blog is ridiculous. They outsource the reading of blog comments to staffers who email a summary to Bob Lutz. No jumping into the comment thread like Cathy and others do here.

I now see why I started my blogs. We all need to keep reminding ourselves of the core values of blogging, spam removal, credibility factors, etc.

Too bad about GM. It was nice knowing them.

Posted by steven streight aka vaspers the grate at June 12, 2005 1:09 AM

This thread makes my blood boil. (Disclosure: I am the son of a retired GM executive and three of my brothers work for GM) For starters:

Rick Wagoner announced that GM will eliminate 25,000+ jobs by 2008, largely by attrition -- not laying off current GM employees. If you ask me, GM is in trouble because it has not gone through multiple rounds of eliminating jobs as Chysler and Ford have.

If a company lays off employees, does that preclude it from trying to sell cars to keep the balance of its workers busy?

Adoration of Lee I is driven by a worship of the cult of personality, not decisions that he made as the head of Chrysler. As a close observer of the auto scene for my entire lifetime, I would take Rick Wagoner in a heartbeat over Lee I. Then again, maybe Wagoner should arrange a massive government bailout and weaken the company so that it could be purchased by another car manufacturer.

Want to see a complete brand makeover? Can you say, "Cadillac?"

Want to see massive investment in China? Check out this special report by the Detroit Free Press: http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/gm-intro20e_20041220.htm

Want to see a unique feature that is critically important to women buyers? Can you say, "On Star?"

viagra jelly uk Want to see a unique feature that appeals strongly to non-traditional GM buyers? Can you say "XM Radio?"

Being snarky and feeling superior is easy, as is putting ideas on a flip chart and talking about innovation. (As a snarky facilitator, I ought to know!) Rick Wagoner did not create the situation at GM, nor is he responsible for the incredible retirement and health care costs that burden the company. Unlike the armchair chair quaterback who critique the quality of GM's blog, he has a near impossible job in the real world.

In my opinion, it is too early to tell whether the GM plan will work.

Posted by Bill Peper at June 13, 2005 4:35 AM

As a lifelong GM fan, I am disheartened by the strategy of continual cost cutting rather than a focus on selling more cars (maybe that's in the cards somewhere, but I haven't heard it). Cost cutting in the last decade has already cut their production capacity by over a million cars per year. Yes, Bill, layoffs (and other means of shrinking capacity) do preclude a company from selling more cars. Cutting operational expense without maintaining throughput is dangerous. GM is putting itself in a precarious position for future growth. Also, keeping people busy is not the same as being producting (making money).

Let's also keep in mind that GM's history of union concession has created an unsustainable social structure that provides health benefits for past & present employees, their families--into perpetuity. A very expensive proposition that seemed like a good idea when GM was on top.

Sure, OnStar and XM are nice features (and they've sold the benefits of OnStar well, in my opinion), but to continue to focus marketing efforts on price slashing, rebates, free financing and the like only serve to devalue their offerings. I don't see many luxury brands advertising rebates, employee discounts, and 0% offers (although Mercedes has been doing more of this--perhaps they learned something from Chrysler after all).

BTW, best car I ever owned was a Buick--a 1961 convertible, no less.

Posted by Russ at June 13, 2005 10:28 AM