Mark LaNeve’s career success at GM—moving from minor league Cadillac man to the head of S&M (Sales and Marketing)—is a text book example of GM’s obliviousness to the idea of accountability. Despite failing to resurrect Cadillac’s fortunes, despite helping Rick “Captain Queeg” Wagoner fondle his balls (read the book) as GM sank into bankruptcy, LaNeve didn’t go down with the ship. While his turf was carved-up post-C11, the beneficiary of the slice and dice was none other than failed Car Czar Bob Lutz, who assumed LaNeve’s marketing remit. Did LaNeve even take a salary cut? Don’t make me laugh. But if you do want to solicit a sad sort of chuckle, remind me that LaNeve is headed to Allstate. You’re in good hands? The man is bitching about his Escalade payment, having overseen the destruction of billions in shareholder value and the disappearance of thousands of dealers. See? If it wasn’t so sad, it would be funny.
To: All GM Dealers
After 28 years in the auto business and 24 with GM, I can’t believe that beginning next week I will be doing something different than trying to sell cars and sweating out another month-end close.
It’s been a great ride to this point and I wouldn’t be leaving if not for a great opportunity in a great industry in a great town. To that end, Chicago is close enough to Detroit to make the relocation manageable and has outstanding special needs resources for my sons. In the meantime, I feel good that I’m departing at a time that GM is on the right track with great products, dealers and employees. A clean balance sheet for the first time in decades doesn’t hurt either.
It has been a thrill to work with the great dealers of General Motors. Your professionalism, talent, perseverance, optimism and community involvement have never ceased to amaze me. From the day I hired into the Cadillac Los Angeles Zone in 1981 as a customer relations rep, my entire career has involved working with all of you to help sell vehicles and satisfy customers. It has been a lot of fun and a great experience.
The last couple of years have been difficult for our industry and GM. The wind-down process, though necessary, was particularly painful and personal. I am confident however that the worst is over and success lays just over the horizon.
The leadership team at GM is strong, Susan Docherty is a great choice for Vice President US Sales and believe me they don’t come any better or harder working than Ed Peper, Jim Bunnell, Steve Hill, Brian Sweeney, Kurt McNeil, Jim Campbell and Julie Heisel in sales and Brent Dewar, Jay Spenchian, Betsy Lazar and Bryan Nesbitt on the marketing side.
I just had to buy my first vehicle for myself in years – an Escalade. The payment is high but I love it anyway and there is no question I will sell GM every chance I get to my friends and co-workers and cheer for all of you each and every day.
Thank you for all you have done for me and GM, and please accept my very best wishes for many years of success.
Great selling and go kick some ass. It has truly been my honor and pleasure to know you and serve you.
Mark LaNeve
Adieu, LaNeve. Please let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, preferably into the path of the bus you helped GM throw us all under.
LaNeve put the crack pipe down, and when you go to work for Allstate you can make payments to me much higher than your Escalade, until you pay off your share, 35 billion. I’m sure the thieves you are going to work for will pay you well to destroy what’s left of the middle class, so the payments shouldn’t hurt that bad. Don’t worry I’m not a pig like your buddies, I’ll disburse it back to the tax payers. Payments are due on the first.
In defense of Mr LaNever and every other executive with a divine sense of timing in the last few years, Ide like to take this chance, on this magnificent day and point out the futility of reacting to faceless corporate promulgations from public relations departments that have either not seemed to understand that the American media market has been oversaturated with “post game” comments for pretty close to 50 years now. And while it was heartening and cozy to tune into Walter Cronkite or Tom Brokaw, the days of monopolizing the common sense are pretty much over now.
The United States does not have any more carrying capacity to fuel a rate of growth to keep anybody’s doors open. For a myriad of factors, no more drinkable water to build out suburban sprawl with which to market new automobiles to freshly minted families that still havent “done the math”, energy constraints, fiscal imbalances that prevent the federal reserve from monetizing the stock market any longer at negative real interest rates together with the aforementioned make any body trying to sell cars in todays market look masochistic.
To the industries credit, its almost impossible to buy a poor quality car anymore, at any price point. The average consumer who wants a vehicle to commute probably finds the features and marketing gimmicks secondary to their final choice, and like all marketers who slave over forming questionares that customers rarely go through, they make their money assuaging management and shareholders with reports about nothing.
The american economy that can no longer monopolize the common sense to foreign investors or domestic consumers by expanding our supply of money faster than price inflation. The clutter and the competition has indeed grown crowded.
Having understood the shelf life of our functional presence as money circulators, tax payers, mobile consumers, gregarious borrowers, it gives one pause. The demographic explosion of the last 50 years is not a permanent state of affairs and cannot float the economy for very much longer without a war or a severe contraction to reset institutional and consumer credit levels to pre-6.5 billion levels (320 million people in the United States alone the last time I checked).
That said, executives who have no sense of timing need not be blamed for overarching trends that are going to avalanche a good many of us in the years to come. The most that can be said is, it was a good ride……
Hard to believe that characters like LaNeve haven’t been prosecuted for some kind of crime of gross negligence.
“Having to buy his first car in years” reminds me of a former senior executive at work who upon his retirement, lamented the fact that he didn’t know how to park at the airport. Turns out he had a car and driver at his disposal and used it frequently. But when it came time to pay us underlings for parking at the airport, he limited the payment to $2/day when the cheapest parking was $5/day. We had to eat the rest.
So long Mark, and don’t let the screen door hit you in the A**. Hope your dealer service experience is just as good as we get.
Glad you clarified the S&M thing.
AMF-Mark, hopefully you can grease the skids for Susan “Hummer” Dochery to join you before 2011.
So he buys a whored out Chevy truck badged as a Cadillac to leave GM and go to Chicago……
Ironic on so many levels
I give him less than two years and that Escalade will be replaced with a Lexus or BMW or Mercedes, once he realizes all the other execs at Allstate are secretly laughing at his pimpmobile.
” LaNeve is headed to Allstate. You’re in good hands? “
Even if these clowns did not make the mind-boggling move to hire their fellow clown,
Long before that, I really resented the mindless war of ads between the Auto Insurance bozos, Geico and Allstate.
And the exteme irony is that the clowns claim that they can.. save you $ on car insurance!!!!!
When, actually, if they just dropped all of their stupid ads, on TV alone, THEN they would have the excta cash to give you a break on your insurance payments!
Their ad wars seems to me as mindless as the onetime pissing contest between ATT and MCI, when one could easily get 25,000 frequent flyer miles for switching to MCI, and then ATT would give you $100, effing cash, to come back!
And once I asked how frequently one could switch and somebody told me “once a day”!
He borrows 50K (likely at 0%) on his way out the door and he has the balls to complain about the payment?!
I wonder if he got it through drive-and-buy?
What a feat…..he leaves GM for Allstate, thus simultaneously improving the average management IQ at both places…..
What a complete and utter tool….
Grammar police alert:
“…and success lays just over the horizon.”
RE: Grammar police alert:
Well, he was the head of S&M.
He’s complaining about the payments on his Escalade, why didn’t he just buy a Tahoe? He knows it’s the same damn thing.
I LOVE this line:
A clean balance sheet for the first time in decades doesn’t hurt either.
That’s like saying, “Well, the house is finally clean” after he burned it down.
Talk about oblivious!
I sold my GM stock before it fell. Guess Id better dump Allstate, NOW!
I find it hard to believe he doesn’t have enough in cash to just buy the stinking Escalade. It’s as if he’s pandering to the little people…”I have high car payments too, see!”
The whole problem with GM is in this little sentance “…sweating out another month-end close.” Should be worried more about their long term business, then maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to sell their cars.
ps Just rented a pos Cobalt, taking my Silverado in to get the AC fixed (again) and the rear brakes (again)
As a corp comms professional at a pretty big company, this email made me throw up in my mouth a little. Either he went off the reservation and sent this one out on his own, or the internal comms team at GM should be shot. Complete disconnect from reality, and I have to believe the employees would be simultaneously thrilled he has left and filled with hate at the guy’s cojones/stupidity.
Also, we typically operate under the assumption that any exec internal comms will leak outside the org. That said, this one is galling on every level.
Way to go GM. Way to go. FAIL.
@carguy622:
I’m sure he does have the cash, but since his old employer is offering 0% financing, his final “screw you” to GM was to use its cash interest free for (up to) five years to buy a heavily discounted product he failed to sell at full price.
One more thing (out of a squadron of faults with this missive) is the omission of “family” from the future sales targets in this line:
I will sell GM every chance I get to my friends and co-workers […]
Yet Another Supremely Self Important Retard.
Yassir!
For me, the piece de resistance was his effort to extract some sympathy out of us on the backs of his poor children. This guy is not just incompetent, he is a low life.
Cant afford an Escalade? Pathetic, buy something you can afford!
Perhaps he is diverting most available funds to hair plugs and self-tanner for the new gig.
28 years in the biz…and he’s a PAYMENT BUYER?
Wonder who packed his payments! Bwahaha!
Way to keep it classy Allstate!
Hey, does anyone know what movie that Elliot Gould photo is from?
“I feel good that I’m departing at a time that GM is on the right track with great products, dealers and employees.” (Well two out of three ain’t bad, so long as you don’t count the corporate leadership as employees)
“A clean balance sheet for the first time in decades doesn’t hurt either.” I’m sure it is good to have one’s fetid failings buried under a pile of TARP payments.
“Susan Docherty is a great choice for Vice President US Sales” She’s a great choice to take the blame and fallout for LaNeve’s tenure whilst simultaneously not having any idea of what to do on her own.
“To the industries credit, its almost impossible to buy a poor quality car anymore, at any price point.” And that will remain true so long as Toyota and Honda are pulling the numbers up for the rest of the domestics. This twit hasn’t actually owned a car made by his company in 28 years that wasn’t a ringer, has he?
“Great selling and go kick some ass.” Many would like to start with his, but hate crimes are against the law.
LaNeve off to All State?
Hmmmm. I’m an All State customer.
…this news is of grave concern to me.
Well, sure they have a clean balance sheet…we (the United States taxpayers) provided that for GM, you imbecile.
And you bought an Escalade? Seriously? You certainly exhibit great faith in GM’s ability to build quality cars (you know…those “other” vehicles that aren’t SUVs…the ones more people are buying now and what GM needs to build excellent examples of). Or not. Couldn’t stomach driving anything more pedestrian or fuel-effecient, could you? Or maybe it was the very real fear of driving something other than a truck/SUV, of which GM at least has a clue how to build.
You were paid how much by GM (and now All State) and you have to gaul to complain about making high payments on your new ‘Slade? Is that supposed to endear you to us somehow? How about advocating NOT going into debt and making payments to begin with, you moron.
Can we please, please, please just wipe the slate clean (entirely) at GM and start over? New management, new products, new philosophy (like, how is this for a novel approach…build superior cars that people genuinely desire that last…or am I asking way too much?). I want to, really, truly, love our American nameplates, but damn…it’s hard to do with an attitude like this.
Agreed with everyone who finds the attempt to solicit sympathy sickening. Why not take it one step further and ask if anyone has a pickup he could borrow for the big move.
On the plus side, if he thinks a car payment is tough, I’d love to see the reaction when he
1. Trys to sell whatever suburban Detroit palace he owns
2. Comparison shops that selling price with Chicago real estate.
1. Trys to sell whatever suburban Detroit palace he owns
More than likely he has an agreement with allstate that they will pay the difference if he isn’t able to sell for what he bought for or can’t sell it in a timely manner.
It’s been a great ride to this point and I wouldn’t be leaving if not for a great opportunity in a great industry in a great town.
well that’s just great, Mark. Unlike your performance of late.
It’s Robert Altman’s 1973 version of Raymond Chandler’s “The Long Goodbye.”
Good flick, by the way — The usual Altman stuff, but Gould does a dry-humor, revisionist take on Philip Marlowe that’s occasionally hilarious. Oh, and he drives a ’41 Lincoln Continental despite it being set in the Seventies.
kenwood :
October 15th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Hey, does anyone know what movie that Elliot Gould photo is from?
Frank Williams- +1
Probably sooner than 2 years. I’m betting he’ll go German, the reliability of a Lexus would be a bit unnerving after all these years in Gm buggies.
I would be funny to know when (not if) it happens.
Bunter
For that matter, it might be interesting to see what any ex-debtroit execs are driving after a few years. Wonder when Wagner gets his S-class?
Bunter
The article mentions the lack of accountability at GM. While true enough, there is a lack of accountability, I’d like to suggest this is nowhere near the biggest problem.
A bigger problem is the lack of ability to make good decisions, or sometimes, any decision. RF has been telling us for years that GM was on a collision course with bankruptcy. GM execs acted like it hadn’t occurred to them that this might happen, or they knew it and just didn’t care. As RF has pointed out numerous times, 4 years ago, or more, was a good time to start “new GM” when there was still enough cash to make it possible to salvage the company. But that’s just one example. There are countless other examples of sitting on hands or making bad decisions in the past 30 or more years – while they’ve watched their market share evaporate.
Post failure accountability may have it’s usefulness, but it isn’t nearly as important as having some wins.
A second reason to quit worrying about accountability is that it makes no sense in today’s corporate world. LaNeve was walking out of the RenCen carrying a cardboard box and up zooms a limo filled with Allstate execs who whisk him off to a corner office and no doubt a pay raise. What message is sent? Simple, start playing golf with people in other industries, that way when they make an example of you, you have contacts that can help you get another job. Why would LaNeve conclude that he’d done a poor job at GM? After all, Allstate wants him. Must be he’s a really great marketing wizard.
A third reason to drop the concern with accountability is that no one could do a good job at GM even if they wanted to and knew how. This is not a defense of LaNeve, but how could he effectively market brands when his superiors don’t know what a brand is? GM’s top people can’t define a brand, they don’t know how to maintain a brand, and they have no idea where any division fits vis-a-vis their other brands.
My final thought is this – and it’s pure speculation. I wonder if Whitacre had something to do with this? Ed seems to me to have decided that everything is just fine with product, and therefore the real problem is with marketing. Is this a way of shaking thinks up in the marketing dept.? Is this a way of telling Suzy-D she better perform? (No double entendre intended)
A lot of juvenille vitriol from the B & B I’d say. Name calling and insults are quite unbecoming really.
russification:
Spot on! You nailed it all quite succinctly.