“If you do it right 51% of the time, you will end up a hero.” – Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.
And Rick Wagoner has done it right at least that much. The problem is that he has been working against a 50-year legacy of preponderantly wrong decisions by his GM CEO predecesors. These include bad labor deals, sqaundering brand equity, failure to maintain product quality, failure to innovate, failure to compete globally, among an endless litany that is nicely summed up in “Roger and Me.”
Rick has put his shoulder against all of this, and by the beginning of this year, GM had a growing line of competitive cars, was a leading player in emerging markets, was developing a breakthrough propulsion system (Volt), had negotiated a competitive labor cost structure, and had built some of the world’s most productive and environmentally-friendly plants.
He has made some mistakes. The Hummer. Launching the two-mode hybrid system in the big SUVs. Partnering with Fiat. As far as the failure to prune the thicket of GM nameplates, brands and dealers, these were battles that couldn’t be fought at the same time as those with the UAW (win), the Kerkorian/Ghosn attempted takeover (win), the Delphi bankruptcy (still fighting), and the other dozens of constantly erupting firefights where Rick has been ever at the trigger.
His mistakes have not been out of ego or stupidity. They were poor, but not uninformed, decisions. The good decisions are vastly more numerous and strategically more significant. Rick’s major failing has been the lack of a vision for the North American market, and that is more the fault of an institutional legacy of putting financial men alone at the top of the company since 1958. Knowing that, he can get plenty of good help to turn that around — and he is magnanimous about giving good people authority to do their job.
Chris Dodd blames Wagoner for GM’s plight? That’s tantamount to attributing Dodd with the responsiblity for the economy because George Bush’s grandfather, Preston Bush once held Dodd’s senate seat.
Alfred Sloan
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