Rick Wagoner has problem with “b” words. You’ll no sooner hear the GM CEO utter the words “bankruptcy” and “bailout” than you’ll hear him calling the switch from SUVs and pickups (combined with the end of easy credit) “a God damn motherfucker.” But who knew that Red Ink Rink was so reticent about saying the name of his Detroit competitors? In honor of GM’s 100th anniversary (Hello? That’s so last week), The Detroit Free Press‘ Katie “I Heart GM” Merx gathered some reminiscences from the tano kubwa: Wagoner, Car Czar Bob Lutz, CFO Ray Young, design chief Ed Wellburn and, oops! Where’s COO Fritz Henderson? Probably down at the bank, getting a cashier’s check for $3.5b. Anyway, here’s Rick’s tale of his first awareness of the company that would eventually pay him $15.5m annually to run it into the ground. “‘When I was a kid, whether I was 10 years old or 8 years old, on the school bus coming home, we used to count whether there were more Fords or Chevrolets,’ Wagoner recounted for the Free Press this month. ‘And, um, at that point my father drove Brand X and my friend’s father drove a Chevrolet. And one day, there were more Brand X’s and my friend said, ‘That’s not fair. I’m only counting Chevrolet, and not all of General Motors.’ I said, ‘Well, what are you talking about?’ That’s when I realized there’s more to this than just the brand name on the car.'”
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What I found most interesting about this “article” is that GM’s badge engineering is obvious even to a typical 5-year old.
Brand X makes the best cars.
In fact, Brand X makes the best everything.
Except widgets, Brand Z makes the best widgets
Wagoner is such an easy target. Believe me, I’m no GM apologist, or even a GM employee. However, if you were to craft a list of Top 5 attributes that Wagoner brings to the party, what would they be? No one in his position is simply a moron, doesn’t have to wear his mittens on a string, or have his name sewn into his windbreaker. Just wondering what the rationale is that keeps his Board solidly (or maybe not so solidly) behind him, giving him multiple opportunities to right the ship. Is he simply the best they have? Is his GM pedigree, and the ‘familiarity factor’ worth that much? Does he project as the consummate professional and critical thinker? Do they think he’s a victim of his environment and the structural constraints (legacy costs for UAW & fuel price impact) that he works under? What’s the real attraction? Would he be snapped up in a nano-second by another firm (or automaker) if he was let go? For the sake of balance, what factors make Wagoner worth keeping?
Back when Kerkorian made his run at GM and got York on the board, I remember reading an article about what went on in a GM board meeting; seems likely to have been the first that York attended. Anyway, York gave Wagoner a hard time by asking some questions. As I remember it, the question York kept repeating was ‘what about cash flow’ or maybe ‘what about cash on hand’. So Rick would cover whatever topic and York would ask this question. After a few times, other board members chimed in or beat York to it. Wagoner must have been interviewed for the article because he was quoted that it seemed like piling on to him. So at that point there must have been doubts among the board members, and there was the time when Wagoner supposedly defended himself to the board as the best CEO available, and they backed down. This questioning seems to have passed though for some reason. Whatever the process, GM is not alone by any means, and the situation isn’t new.
Al Dunlap, William Agee, John Akers, etc.
GM’s house is on fire, but the tenor of the Freep piece is all warm feelings and rosy nostalgia. Not a word about the looming collapse of the company that was once capitalism’s showpiece.
Surreal.
Yes, he’s taken GM and made them Brands Ecch
For crissake, you’d think that this fool would have enough sense to take this opportunity and lay out a plan… any plan… for the future of the company he leads. Instead, he slips into a self-absorbed whimsical walk down memory lane about how his dad was a Ford man.
This company deserves to fail. My hope is that the labor unions are blamed as well for the demise of a once great company.
eyeonthetarget: I think he has, ahem, photographs of the board members. I can’t think of any other reason.
GM’s board has been ineffectual for forty years. Nothing new about that.
Nothing has changed one iota.
Back when Ricky was 10 yrs old, he was still nursing from his mother. When a bully at school or on the bus took his milk money…he’d run home and comfort himself with his mother’s “num-nums”.
Well…now that the marketplace is clobbering the hell out of his beloved GM, he’s going to Congress…and the taxpayers at large…and asking for the “num-nums”.
Grow up Ricky, it’s not becoming of a grown man to be sucking at the teat for nourishment. You really ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Buickman, I agree with you wholeheartedly. This destruction could ONLY have come about intentionally. No neglect is this effective…only a concerted effort bent on destruction can wipe away such a company.
And yes, I am aware there are groups out there whose membership fosters such destruction…. wikipedia or google “Bilderberg Group”. I would not be surprised if Rick Wagoner was a member. Hillary and Bill Clinton are members of the Bilderberg Group…whose mission is the destruction of middle class America and to bring it into the folds of an ever growing world government and “globalism”. What do you think that term “globalism” means? …it means a Global government.
Be forewarned, though…the name “Buickman” will soon a silly name of years-gone-by, much like “Joe Isuzu”.
this world is full of more evil than any of you realize. Red Ink Rick was hand picked to intentionally decimate GM for the benefit of the capitalist banksters hell bent on the destruction of the middle class and the virtual rape of our society as we know it. the complacency and allowances are amazing and truly of no surprise as people in general have become weak and accepting. to simply accept the degrination speaks volumes about the weakness of our current society. not me tho. Hoo Ahhh! the Buickman lives on….
as I claim for the umpteenth time. Wagoner is a crook and belongs in prison for the intentional destruction of the world’s once most mightiest corporation. wake up world!
What American middle class? The one which can’t even scrabble together a down payment on a new car out of savings – never mind save enough to BUY a new car?
How about the middle class which is so unable to save ANYTHING that if a problem arises (like a hurricane disrupting work , or a lay-off), can’t manage to make even one house payment or car payment without they themselves going to suckle on Uncle Sam’s teat?
I was having a discussion with friends just this afternoon and related that, according to some metrics, the great depression never left us. Our current “affluence” is solely based upon INDEBTEDNESS.
I’m as guilty as anyone else in that regard – 2 car payments and a mortgage.
WhEn my grandfather (born in 1889) grew up, he worked, saved money, bought a farm, built a house, owed not a penny – THEN went courting, married and had children. His first car was a 1923 Ford Model T touring car, and for it, he paid CASH.
We may all end up being forced to “go back in time” and live that way f the current financial situation crumbles.
It will be do-able, just so long as we don’t have a virtually 50% true hidden tax rate as we do now -before Roosevelt, before the Fed was established in 1913, before the Federal Income tax, the true tax rate of Americans ran about 5% through tariffs and Federal Excise Taxes on certain goods. A consumption tax – not an income tax.
God speaks plainly about debt – and plainly calls the debtor the SLAVE of the person to whom he owes money. Plain enough? Highly intelligent, successful people managed to save money, start businesses, succed and fail if failed, try again – for literally centuries – no millenia – before the rich elite figured out how to re-enslave not only the blacks, but virtually everyone.
I am a freelance writer, have been since the mid-1970s. It is generally considered to be contemptible way to earn a living, in terms of making the Big Bucks. In fact many of my friends from the old days when I was a magazine editor went to work for big PR departments and advertising companies, earned huge salaries.
I have never paid anything but cash for a car since I can’t remember when and currently own two Porsches and a Volvo and a half-million-dollar house that I’ve owned since 1971 and that hasn’t had a mortgage payment since 1980, and I don’t owe anybody a penny, even American Express.
My daughter went to an Ivy League college and watched many of her classmates go straight to Wall Street and six- and seven-digit salaries while she worked as a magazine editor and saved her money whenever possible. They’re out of work, as of last week. Ten years after graduating, she already has a substantial pile safely invested.
Do I have any sympathy for people who can’t save and who use easy credit? Nope.
Ten years after graduating, she already has a substantial pile safely invested
There may not be a safe investment if it gets really bad. We have not yet reached the bottom.
There are so many gems in that article, like this one from CFO Young:
” …. He certainly didn’t plan to work for GM. His opinion was that it was a stodgy company run by an old, homogenous crowd. … Once he was at GM, Young’s aspiration became to get a job where he would receive a company car. Said Young, who’s waiting for a new Chevrolet Malibu as his next company car: ‘Sometimes I can’t believe I’m the CFO.\'”
It didn’t take Young long to get his grove on with the GM culture. No talk about what he wanted to accomplish for the customers, employees or shareholders. Nope, just angling for the company car.
He doesn’t have any problem with one B word – Bank.
He banks his money while begging banks for GM’s.
I call BS on that little anecdote. My guess – as a child, Rick and his little freakish friend would keep track of the brands of adding machines they would see in the accounting classes they took.
Rick’s no car guy. He never noticed the car’s brands as they whizzed by. He was lucky he noticed them at all, and didn’t get plastered by one.
Our high school was next to an interstate highway … when the 1979 Ford LTD and 1979 Chevy Caprice came out, my buddy used to sit in history class, and for a semester, looked out the window and tallied ’79 Ford v. Chevy, and daydream about Ford usurping Chevy’s place in the market…
BTW, how is it that the CFO of a “major” corporation can get geeked about getting a Malibu as a new company car? Wouldn’t such a dude aspire to a ‘Vette, or Caddy-something, or Pontiac GX8? Might as well hang a sign on his back saying “I am so far from a car-guy that I can’t tell shit from shinola.”