On Friday I was in Washington for a meeting with Administration officials. In the course of that meeting, they requested that I “step aside” as CEO of GM, and so I have.
Fritz Henderson is an excellent choice to be the next CEO of GM. Having worked closely with Fritz for many years, I know that he is the ideal person to lead the company through the completion of our restructuring efforts. His knowledge of the global industry and the company are exceptional, and he has the intellect, energy, and support among GM’ers worldwide to succeed. I wish him well, and I stand ready to support him, and interim Non-Executive Chairman Kent Kresa, in every way possible.
I also want to extend my sincerest thanks to everyone who supported GM and me during my time as CEO. I deeply appreciate the excellent counsel and commitment of the GM Board and the strong support of our many partners including our terrific dealers, suppliers, and community leaders. I am grateful as well to the union leaders with whom I have had the chance to work closely to implement numerous tough but necessary restructuring agreements.
Most important of all I want to express my deepest appreciation to the extraordinary team of GM employees around the world. You have been a tremendous source of inspiration and pride to me, and I will be forever grateful for the courage and commitment you have shown as we have confronted the unprecedented challenges of the past few years. GM is a great company with a storied history. Ignore the doubters because I know it is also a company with a great future.
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Did Rick use commercial flights? Drive from Detroit to Washington, D(istrict) of C(ontrol)?
And how much cash did he bank while not doing anything big to help GM?
Forget paying Rick $1 / year to run GM. I wouldn’t pay him $1 for this piece of crap statement.
“…it is also a company with a great future.”
After it files for bankruptcy.
“I also want to extend my sincerest thanks to everyone who supported GM and me during my time as CEO.”
Yeah, I bet he does. With that salary…
Hot potato. Pass. Etc.
“Fritz Henderson is an excellent choice to be the next CEO of GM.”
Sorry to say Fritz is the same as Rick. Same old MBA, GM lifer, who rose through the ranks of GM Finance to the CEO job. Rick’s endorsement is proof that Fritz is the wrong guy for the job.
This is further proof that Rick’s head is in the clouds. Fritz is not the new CEO of GM. Obama is completely cleaning house, and Fritz is just the guy in charge until Obama can find someone else to run the show.
Did Rick use commercial flights? Drive from Detroit to Washington, D(istrict) of C(ontrol)?
Not sure, but I am sure he’ll be taking his golden parachute on the way back.
John
Watching the main stream media’s reactions to Wagoner’s firing and their comments about his tenure at GM I am struck by the media’s cluelessness. Thank God for TTAC and other blogs that know the business and tell the truth about the business. When people like the Governor of Michigan say Rick was the best CEO GM ever had it just shows that the lunatics are running the asylum.
Wagoner’s endorsement of Henderson is akin to Bush’s endorsement of McCain.
“On Friday I was in Washington for a meeting with Administration officials. In the course of that meeting, they requested that I “step aside” as CEO of GM, and so I have.”
Whatever sneers might be deserved about Wagoner’s inept trusteeship, I give him credit for candor about being canned; i.e., “They showed me the door, so I went through it.”
I don’t have sympathy for him, but I can empathize with him.
Robert,
This could be a great opportunity for TTAC to summarize and post GM marketshare and unit sales performance each year RW was CEO against what his total compensation was valued at in USD each year as well.
In addition, it would be insightful to know the list of the GM board of directors overseeing RW each one of those years now too.
Thx again for the TTAC deathwatch series. It has been excellent. Admittedly, no one likes to see a hometeam lose but…….
Rick, channeling Baghdad Bob.
That message set off the BS detector.
The inconvenient truth for Fritz is that he is now handed a steaming pile that Rick won’t have to administer through C11 or C7.
Robert – Where’s your B-17 bailout pic? Rick is one of those jumpers, but not the last one out like the captain is supposed to be.
“Fritz Henderson is an excellent choice to be the next CEO of GM.”
That’s like the left head of Monty Python’s 3-headed knight resigning, but nominating the middle head to take over!
Watching the main stream media’s reactions to Wagoner’s firing and their comments about his tenure at GM I am struck by the media’s cluelessness.
I said this in another post, but you raise it here and it’s worth repeating and expanding upon: the media reaction to this is absolutely fascinating. Near as I can tell, there’s a few things happening:
* One, the media had no real idea how wide and deep the problems at GM are, nor how poor Rick Wagoner’s track record really is. Press-release journalism has become the norm, especially in mass-media industry reporting.
* Two, the media is terrified by the idea of government exerting this kind of influence over the private sector. Despite the “liberal bias”, the media is, at most, socially liberal, not economically so. It’s very hard for organizations run by people that typify concentrated wealth and power to really be in favour of this kind of thing, mostly because they could very well be next.
* Three, this is false objectivity rearing it’s ugly head again. The media is compelled to show “both sides of the story”, even if one side is patently ridiculous.
* Four, no one likes to be wrong. The media bought a lot of Bob Lutz’s spin over the past few years, and it’s going to be hard for them to collectively admit that the shoddy reporting they’ve done is just that: shoddy.
* Five, no one likes to be scooped. This happened quickly, and without much media preamble. This goes with point four above: no one gets to to say they saw it coming, or that they reported it here first.
I’ve seen lesser executives raked over the coals for far less despite heading companies that are sound and successful. The reaction we’re seeing is very interesting in what it says about the media.
Ingvar,
Wagoner’s grammar and the use of the word “me” is correct in this case. If “GM” were left out of the statement, it would sound wrong to say, “I want to thank everybody who supported I.”
I don’t know what is more beguiling:
1.) The fact that the board didn’t ask for his resignation a long time ago as any CEO who has done as much damage to his corporation as this clown has done, in the real world anyway, is generally asked to do or…….
2.)The fact that he seems surprised that, “they requested that I ‘step aside’ as CEO of GM” and he wouldn’t do the adult thing and do it on his own.
It is truly a nihilistic culture!
Without Rabid Rick around, TTAC will never be the same.
Verbal : Without Rabid Rick around, TTAC will never be the same.
Pshaw!
There’s plenty more where he came from, plenty more left to kick around.
A word to the wise, Obama team-
Rick Wagoner, like any modern exec worth his salt, has assuredly surrounded himself with sycophants and lap-dogs who are probably incapable of an original thought beyond “Will that be one lump or two with your coffee sir?”. There needs to be some large scale house-cleaning in the exec area.
And, while you’re at it, don’t forget those wimps and toadies on the board of directors who enabled this guy to remain years past the time he should have been shown the door.
See, especially in this industry, it is product (aka vehicles) that trumps everything. Its always been about the product.
If GM had listened to the doubters… well, things would have been different.
Even here people seem to forget GM is a business, plain and simple.
Statements like the one above “…Obama is completely cleaning house, and Fritz is just…in charge until Obama can find someone else…” seems to lose sight of that fact.
It’s fine Obama is stepping in temporarily in an emergency for the sake of so many good employees, but why does he have to find someone to run a private company in the long run? The BoD, the Shareholders, all should be picketing in the streets. They snoozed, they ‘losed’. Thats no different than the risks any investor takes. If GM was wildely successful, they would all reap those benefits as well.
Regardless, this treatment of GM as a national monument, worthy of saving for posterity seems to be completely misplaced.
Yes, the government should be concerned about the ramifications of hundreds of thousands of people out of work. It should provide them with emergency options; i.e. education loans, training opportunities, and temporary security.
If the government really wants to help, take the billions they’ll lose at GM, and put it into technical schools, or the Detroit Community College system (if there is one). Put the money into tax breaks for new manufacturing businesses. Have these people trained and working so they’ll pay back the money ten-fold in GDP gains.
My points are:
A) GM is a business. Money in must be >= money out, or it fails. Any of us who run a business must live by that.
B) “Give a man a fish, he’ll eat today. Teach him to fish, he’ll eat forever”. Put a few $Bil where it will do the most good. Temporary unemployment to sustain, then education. Put it in major re-training initiatives for laid-off auto workers, and business tax breaks to incentivise new industry. Make Detroit the new silicon valley of the next big thing in manufacturing, whatever that is.
Rick. just let this be a lesson for who you sleep with from now on!YOU LOSER!No lost sleep here you should have have been fired years ago by your spineless ex board.I wonder if he gets a $25.000 voucher towards a new car?
So Fritz Henderson is going to succeed Rick Wagoner…meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Sorry, but I am not impressed by Henderson; he’s simply another numbers guy.
Hmmm…No more “Rabid Rick”….does Fritz now become “Frisky Fritz” or “Fab Fritz”? Well maybe in 6 months it will be “Forget Fritz”
That wascally wabbit Frucking Fritz.
Un-freaking believable, it took the President of the USA to uproot Wagoner at GM. Talk about being cemented under a bunker, this guy and his team have added new meaning to stick-too-it-tivness. Also imagine, without completly running of cash last year, Wagoner would still be here preaching about the comeback and the “volt”. It took 240 volts under his kiester to move him, now that’s what the volt did for GM.
The three stooges.
Wagoner
Lutz
Fritz
Next, we need to get rid of the sheep that are “serving” on the board of directors.
I hear a lot about retraining and educating those that have lost their jobs due to the finacial mess and the just plain failure of our government to protect the manufacturing industries from foreign price cutting. What are we going to educate them to do? IT? Nope all being outsourced to India so no jobs there. Engineering? Nope same as IT going, going, gone overseas. Skilled trades? Nope gone to China along with the manufacturing jobs. Picking vegetables? Nope being done by illegals shipped in from Mexico. The list of jobs gone is long and the list of jobs left is small. It’s time the government put laws in place to protect our jobs. Almost every other country has laws to protect their indigenous industry why not us?