Car Guys vs. Bean Counters - Bob Lutz [107]
• Mining the material from the bowels of the earth
• Growing food and wood on the surface of the earth
• Manufacturing and distributing the products of the first two
Everything else is simply trading “value” that has already been created. And issuing mortgages, for high profit, to home “owners” who manifestly don’t qualify for homeownership is about as economically useful as a Ponzi scheme, which, now that I think of it, it resembles.
GM will come back. The people, the skills, the desire to succeed are all there. The competitive “killer instinct” is at a higher pitch than at anytime in the last fifty years. The burdens of the past, which so shackled the company, and hangovers from the parties of better days, are gone. Unfortunately, many investors, including the author, lost a lot, but that’s what Chapter 11 does: it assures a new beginning, but with new owners.
I would hope that the mistakes and the sense of “we’re too big and too powerful to fail,” all the things that marked the last four decades at GM, are duly noted. The resurgence of the focus on the customer, the mission of “designing, building, and selling the world’s best cars and trucks,” the replacement of arrogance with a new sense of reality and a determination to succeed, to reconquer, to prove the naysayers wrong are all lessons imparted by the last ten years of dramatic change at GM.
Restructuring and rebirth are possible, but not without selfrecognition, pain, and hardship.
Let us hope that the United States, challenged as never before, finds the path to renewed industrial competitiveness and, thus, wealth and influence. We do not want a national “Chapter 11” and, subsequently, a change in ownership of the country!
Acknowledgments
COUNTLESS PEOPLE HELPED IN WRITING THIS BOOK, SOME WITH VALUABLE information, some with encouragement, some with examples of excellence, and some who provided graphic examples of how not to succeed in a customer-focused business. (I’d like to say “You know who you are” but I doubt if the benighted ones are aware of their limitation.)
On the positive side, the main contributors are:
Andy Norton, who provided valuable insights into the bad old days of GM’s disregard for the voice of the customer.
Jack Hazen, that rare blend of bean counter by profession, car guy in his soul, and his soul always won out.
Ed Welburn, GM vice president of global design, who provided me with historical perspective on GM Design’s ups and downs.
Betty Gonko, ace administrative assistant, who provided me with the freedom from trivia that allowed me to conceive the book.
MarkWalkuski, intrepid driver, sounding board, and huge saver of my time.
Tony Posawatz, the soul of the Volt team, for providing some valuable insights into the creation of the world’s first extended-range electric vehicle.
Nancy Breedlove, typist, who deciphered hundreds of my handwritten pages and, being the first reader of the book, wrote “Thanks! I enjoyed it!”
Amy King, home administrative assistant, who has picked up the load created by literary endeavors since my retirement.
Much appreciation goes to my patient wife, Denise, who spent entire Caribbean vacations looking at her husband filling pad after pad (and also providing motivation when I didn’t).
Dee Allen, formerly with GM Communications and now adviser and counselor, for his hints and suggestions.
And last but certainly not least, my long-standing speechwriter and editor John Cortez, whose literary skills vastly exceed mine but who can change and improve so it still sounds like me!
Index
academic environment
excellence in
Adam Opel AG, see Opel
advertising
aerodynamics
airlines
Akerson, Dan
American Community Renewal Act
American Motors Corporation
APEX
Apple
Asensio, Anne
Aston-Martin
Audi
auto industry:
bailout of
hearings on