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NEWS > BUSINESS > NEW GM CHAIRMAN GETS A LEG UP ON EMPLOYEES BY KNOWING NOTHING ABOUT CARS

NEW GM CHAIRMAN GETS A LEG UP ON EMPLOYEES BY KNOWING NOTHING ABOUT CARS

June 11 2009

Detroit, MI – When it comes to choosing the CEO or chairman of the board of a company there are generally very few choices. Those who are good at their jobs generally still have them. Those few that are available are either retired or deserve to be out of work. With so few people to choose from finding the right person is often a
case of simply finding the next person on the list with specific qualifications almost a secondary concern, and when the job involves turning around one of the most venerated companies in the United States, the short list becomes even shorter.  

There’s little doubt that when the U.S. government went looking for someone to take over as chief of General Motors they knew they were in for a tough search. With literally dozens of executive looking for work after the bloodletting of the last eight months the pool of choices was wide but shallow. Going against the grain the selection of Edward Whitacre Jr., a retired CEO for AT&T, fit the bill perfectly. Already his appointment is being applauded especially after his proclamation that he knows nothing about the car industry, which puts him right at home with other executives the company currently employs.    

“I don’t know anything about cars,” Whitacre said yesterday. “A business is a business, and I think I can learn about cars. I’m not that old, and I think the business principles are the same.”

Whitacre will take over as chairman in late August by which time the company will be expected to move out of bankruptcy. Its unclear how much he will be able to learn about the industry in a little less than three months but it is expected that what little he is able to take in will out him on par with virtually everyone else in the company.

“Part of the reason for going into bankruptcy in the first place is to restructure and reorganize the company and hopefully come out with a much clearer vision of how the
company should be working and what kind of product they are creating. GM has already made significant strides towards that end but bringing in a person who doesn’t know anything about the industry doesn’t seem to be a step forward,” said Scrape TV Business analyst Ken Green. “After all the problem with GM has been this old boys club kind of attitude. Where they ran the company like a small business rather than a multinational corporation and the last thing they need is to have someone in charge who can relate to the staff and fellow executives. That is what got them in trouble in the first place.”

Though Whitacre has yet to declare his personal vehicle preference, it is believed that the new version of the company will focus on making cars people want to drive rather than on vehicles that satisfy the whims of the employees. 

“The important thing in choosing the head of a company is their efficacy as a leader and not in their specific types or levels of knowledge. The biggest concern with Whitacre is that he may learn just enough to be dangerous. Once he starts to understand the business just a little bit then he will be able to relate to other people in the company on their level and possibly make a lot of the same mistakes that got them into this trouble in the first place,” continued Green. “Perhaps the best thing would be for Whitacre to simply not learn anything about the industry at all. That would put him at a slight disadvantage when it comes to making strategic decisions but it would at least keep him from the grasp of those who came before and hopefully give the company a shot at staying fluid.”

Reportedly Whitacre still knows nothing about phones despite his success with AT&T.

William Ashford, Business Correspondent 

NEWS > BUSINESS > NEW GM CHAIRMAN GETS A LEG UP ON EMPLOYEES BY KNOWING NOTHING ABOUT CARS

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