GM’s CEO and Chairman Whitacre gave Automotive News [sub] some choice nuggets of quote today. Addressing almost everything except his firm’s stagnant sales, Whitacre took on some of GM’s most staggering challenges in the most… folksy tone imaginable. Mr Whitacre, your explanation of GM’s bankruptcy dealer cull if you please:
The way it came out, if you fell above or below a line, you were removed. But you had to do it that way. You can’t just go around flipping coins, so you had to have a process.
Ok, take a minute to wrestle with that one. Then hit the jump.
Mr Whitacre, do you have misgivings about dealer arbitration? Could it be that the legislated arbitration is less of an improvement on coin-flipping than GM’s process?
I think a large number will get reinstated. I think that’s a given. It’s in the hundreds…. The bad thing would be if they’re a lousy dealer that has a lousy storefront and through some process they’re put back in arbitrarily. If they’re a good dealer and would really push GM in a classy manner, like we want it done, then it would be really good.
“Push GM in a classy manner.” You know, walk the nuanced and mutually-beneficial line GM walks with its potential (or not) customers. Having a hard time with the whole “classy” concept? Just think WWHLD? (What Would Howie Long Do?).
But CEO/Chairmen don’t need to be details people. After all, Big Ed has the vision thing for 2010: Profit. And despite having the highest incentives in the business, he really thinks it’s in the cards this year.
You want to be a profitable company, and I think everything else just sort of flows from that — numbers of vehicles, how many fleet, how many in retail. We’ve kind of restructured, put our priorities in the right place
Forget jumping the shark, the big moment for a GM CEO is when he goes down the rabbit hole. This may have been Ed Whitacre’s big moment.
As Robert McNamara said, I guess we were wrong about Vietnam. OK putz ,what about the dead soldiers?
I wonder how reinstating 100’s of dealers will affect GM’s 2010 profit (ha ha ha)
In the most “folksy manner” that I can attain, imagine a giant dog turd with a huge M-80 stuck in it and the fuse is slowly burning down…..That’s GM 2010!
Laugh at the folksy mannerisms all you want, but I wouldn’t bet against Big Ed. There’s a reason he was the last man standing at his previous gig.
If these dealers were good dealers who represented GM well, why were they cut in the first place? OK, so maybe I am dumb, but I do not get it.
We know politics played alarge part in the Chrysler closings. I wonder if any of the reinstated dealers will be big GOP donors?
Once you politicise an industry, it done-for. Stick a fork in it.
In Whitacre’s defense, it sounds like the government is going to force dealer reinstatement upon GM; it’s not as though GM really wants it. Thanks for politicizing a business process, Congress.
But it’s crazy to think that having more dealers will add a single sale to GM’s bottom line, and improve profitability.
Yeah, if the govt is involved in the decision process – look for the DNC donor litmus test.
Well, unless the process is still ongoing after the Republicans gain seats in 2010….
The road to a 15% marketshare continues for GM. There is nothing they can do about it now.