Not only has the GM BOD not kicked Rick Wagoner out on his ass, they seem to actually, well, love him. "I can assure you that the board is unanimous in its support of Rick Wagoner and the management team to get through these difficult times. We truly feel we have the best management team to get this job done," board member George Fisher told the Detroit News. He also said the management team was "dealing with many problems they hadn't created." Uh… isn't this the same management team that's worked nowhere else but GM (save Lutz)? And hasn't Slick Rick has been in charge for the past eight years? Regardless. Fisher's confident that they have the answer. Just not right now. "The world is going to have to wait and see that we're right on this issue." When asked by the Detroit Free Press "how long a head coach can survive a string of negative results" he told them "until you're at a point when you don't think he's doing the job." So let's see… hundreds of billions of dollars down the toilet over the past few years, selling off everything that's not tied down, plummeting sales and market share– at just what point will they have their epiphany?
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Maybe it’s Rick’s lovely blue eyes that’s won them over; I can’t think of anything else.
“until you’re at a point when you don’t think he’s doing the job.”
So I guess it comes down to what ‘the job’ is. Evidently the job is not making a profit and the job is not increasing or even maintaining market share. What he has done is lose money and market share; one or both must be the job.
So let’s see… hundreds of billions of dollars down the toilet over the past few years, selling off everything that’s not tied down, plummeting sales and market share– at just what point will they have their epiphany?
When they turn the lights off and padlock the front door to RenCen.
I can’t wait to see them right on what ever issue he is talking about, bailouts perhaps.
That is the only reason I can think of they are keeping him around, besides total stupidity. Any one know what Ricks track record is with funning our money into GM pocket through the federal government. I mean tax breaks, incentives, SUV friendly rules, flex-fuel, etc.
The entire board is owned by Toyota, I tell you. Also, on May 23, 2023 the Earth fly into a stellar axis. Honest.
The whole country is being run by overpaid, reality-deprived morons elected/supported by underpaid, education-deprived populance, and the evershrinking middle class has to sit in the middle and watch their world crumble from both ends.
I can’t wait for the day GM goes down, US government becomes insolvent, and we’ll all get conquered by the Grand-Duché de Luxembourg. Or something equally ridiculous. Can’t get any worse than what we’re getting now, really.
They’re not car people, so they buy the rhetoric.
It’s obvious when you actually see who is on the BOD.
Fisher. Retired CEO of Eastman Kodak. The company that totally missed the electronic photo boom.
Can’t GM just go down already?
I’ve never understood the “Rabid” Rick monicker….
comatose perhaps, but definitely not rabid
If you follow the logic, what this says is that the GM BOD thinks GM is a victim of uncontrollable acts of god, the Bush recession etc, rather than systemic bad management and shortsightedness. They’re not failing to perform oversight, they simply don’t see the problem. Short GM stock now if you still have any.
Is it possible that Rick is quietly revolutionizing the company while we participate in this Web lynch mob? For example, he appears to be moving most of the GM jobs overseas, in order to create a sustainable operation. He sure wouldn’t want to brag about that in the media, but it would fix things.
Just a crazy thought.
Danda— I’d argue he doesn’t have time to quietly revolutionize the company. Not when the best promise Rick will give is that they have the cash to survive until the end of 09.
Nows the time for a very loud, very violent revolution.
And yeah, Rabid Rick doesn’t really fit, but Coma Rick just doesn’t have that ring to it.
The “best” management team has lost nearly 70 billion dollars since 2004.
“– at just what point will they have their epiphany?”
…when Wile E. Coyote drops an anvil on their head.
And BTW, does anybody else think “oversight” and “overlook” are a bit too close for comfort?
Just what would “Rick Wagoneer and his management team” have to do to get fired? If Shell Oil were losing $15 billion per quarter instead of making $15 billion, how long do you think their CEO would last? Toyota is taking some action because their profits dropped to only $4 billion, or about $19 billion more than GM last quarter.
“– at just what point will they have their epiphany?”
What epiphany? The entire upper management doesn’t have to worry about such things when they have their golden parachutes on, save for a possible-but-not-likely federal investigation. GM’s fate is some other poor sap’s problem — and I hate to see who’ll be the poor sap sitting in the captain’s chair when the fit hits the shan.
This article in the NYT blogs says it all:
http://executivesuite.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/rick-wagoner-world-record-holder/
“until you’re at a point when you don’t think he’s doing the job”
Apparently the job is making sure he has flushed General Motors COMPLETELY down the toilet!!!
And then his job is to burn all evidence of the once great empires existence!
so, In comparison…
He is Julius Czar, but instead of burning down half of Rome to redesign it… He’s gone pyromaniac and said “BURN IT ALL DOWN!!! ALL OF IT!!!” Picture Golum from Lord of the rings, thats what I think!