Fortune - Administration's Car Czar "shocked" by Poor Management at GM

[TriShield]

The man who led the effort gives an inside look at the bankruptcies that shook America.



"Everyone knew Detroit's reputation for insular, slow-moving cultures. Even by that low standard, I was shocked by the stunningly poor management that we found, particularly at GM, where we encountered, among other things, perhaps the weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a major company."

"In my relatively few interactions with chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, I found him to be likable, dedicated, and generally knowledgeable. But Rick set a tone of "friendly arrogance" that seemed to permeate the organization."

"The cultural deficiencies were equally stunning. At GM's Renaissance Center headquarters, the top brass were sequestered on the uppermost floor, behind locked and guarded glass doors. Executives housed on that floor had elevator cards that allowed them to descend to their private garage without stopping at any of the intervening floors (no mixing with the drones)."

“In that insular world, Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner and his team appeared to believe that virtually all their problems resulted from some combination of the financial crisis, oil prices, the yen-dollar exchange rate and the UAW,”

"“Analyses seemed engineered to support preordained conclusions. Symbolically, we never heard the words ‘shareholder value.'"



They almost let Chrysler go too (and should have really). It's a fascinating read. It's no wonder GM couldn't compete considering the people running it and the prevailing culture.

[Spoolin]

Hmmmm...sounds like an interesting read for sure!!