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Automotive News & Views What if you were in charge of GM?
724 messages, Last post on Jul 04, 2009 at 7:22 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Nov 26, 2008 10:27 am) Although a Morgan is pretty attractive. But I think retro can be good, especially if it is retro like Ralph Lauren's Ferraris or Bugatti is. 5. I'd retire 90% of the styling departments of all brands and hire Italians. Or at least use Italian leather! Buying a GM product typically has the panache of buying your shoes at Sears. 6. I'd back-burner the Volt for now. It can't save us anyway (niche markets? Not today!) Right. When you're in a fight for survival in the next few months, everything may have to be halted except the essential. I'd stop all R&D, all model redesign, and all plant modernization until I knew I'd still be in business in a few months. Anything that lessens the chances of surviving the next few months should go. Analogy: If your house is on fire, anything you try and rescue and carry, lessens your chances of survival. GM needs to break-even or make a small profit asap; to show the markets, government, and potential buyers that it is going to make it.
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Replying to: kernick (Nov 26, 2008 2:38 pm) But I don't know...to me, "retro" is a winner's game--the spending of excess wealth. It's not something a loser does to stay in the game IMO. As for Morgan, when you sell like 12 cars a year, sure, retro works. |
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Before I got into the real restructuring, I would do the following to survive right now (as CEO of GM) 1. ask the government to allow GM to close unprofitable franchises at little-no cost and relatively quickly. This will eliminate the "too many dealers" issue rather quickly. 2. Close Hummer. All Hummer dealers sell some other GM franchise anyways. And lets face it, nobody on Planet Earth is going to want to buy Hummer as a brand... Hummer must still cost GM some sort of cash every month to maintain. 3. Cut all senior level management salaries to $1/year, with bonuses exclusively in GM stock. Give them 0 severance if they choose to leave. This is more symbolic than anything else, but at least it'll serve as a nice wake-up call for upper management. 4. delay all product development for another 12 months, minimum, including the Volt program.
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Replying to: jchan2 (Nov 26, 2008 5:34 pm) |
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Replying to: jchan2 (Nov 26, 2008 5:34 pm) They do need to keep up on product development. They are only now catching up with the market. |
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GM Said to Study Shedding Saab, Saturn, Pontiac to Win U.S. Aid (Bloomberg) Maybe they hope Congress will pass a law letting GM get rid of the Pontiac dealers without having to pay them off (a bankruptcy plan without having to file Ch. 11). Congress gave the Alaska Pipeline a pass from NEPA laws and rules, so I suppose it's possible.
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Replying to: steve_ (Nov 26, 2008 6:59 pm) I guess every bit helps.
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Replying to: fezo (Nov 26, 2008 7:09 pm) |
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Replying to: fezo (Nov 26, 2008 7:09 pm) |
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Replying to: steve_ (Nov 26, 2008 6:59 pm) Hopefully Gettelfinger will be as good as his word and the Jobs Bank can be dropped immediately. In that case they could close plants right away, and dropping the brands would be meaningful in reducing a HUGE amount of ongoing costs associated with maintaining those brands.
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