Car Guys vs. Bean Counters - Bob Lutz [38]
After being led downstairs to be photographed for my magnetic all-door-opening ID tag, I reported in to Rick Wagoner. In his usual calm and gentlemanly fashion, he encouraged me to go through the overly ambitious product portfolio and cancel whatever I thought wrong or useless, and, if it was too late for erasure, perhaps inject modifications that would perfume the pig sufficiently to achieve at least a modicum of market success. (I was to be only partially successful at both, but I’ll get to that later.)
I soon attended the first series of meetings of the NASB (North American Strategy Board) as well as the even more exalted ASB (Automotive Strategy Board), the most senior operating committee in the company, attended by the heads of all functions, direct reporting staffs, and geographic regions. Both of these meetings, which occurred monthly, lasted hours, if not a full day. Many threering binders were prepared, but most presentations had been distributed electronically in advance. Myriad subjects were addressed, from market performance by region to financial results, just as in any senior-level corporate meeting. But huge amounts of time were also devoted to far less important issues not of legitimate concern to such a senior convocation, like discussions of parts reuse or cost per stamping die. I remember one hours-long, heated argument over which of a list of future senior leaders were more “functionally oriented” than “general management” in their abilities. “Both” was not an acceptable answer. Small wonder I became infamous for pulling out my BlackBerry and working on my “Brick-Breaker” scores during these meetings.
Another ritualistic time suck was the annual creation and cross-checking of the so-called PMP (Performance Management Process). Whole mornings would be devoted to “aligning goals” among the meeting participants to ensure that each of the dozens of individual objectives were consistent across functions and geographies.This was called “box balancing” the PMPs, the “box” being where a functional leader’s objective intersected, or overlapped, with that of a “geographic” leader. After one interminable, mind-numbing “global PMP box balancing” session, Rick Wagoner asked if everyone on the Automotive Strategy Board now agreed with their own and everyone else’s objectives in the PMP. Seeing heads nod assent, Rick pronounced the coming year as good as in the bag. “All we have to do now is work to achieve those objectives,” he said. “I know you can do it. So, we’re going to have a very successful year.”
Say what? I submit that the whole idea of annual “management by objective” (the generic form of PMP) schemes is hopelessly flawed, an exercise in abject futility, possessing not a smidgen of customer value. My reasons for this categorically negative assessment are twofold. First, the “objectives” are all based on a series of dubious projections on market size, economic activity, competitor actions—none of which ever come true, resulting in a PMP document that is, for all intents and purposes, worthless when finally published and never seriously referred to for “guidance” again. The “value” is only to the small army of human resources personnel who keep track of the whole mess.
My second reason for disdaining PMPs is this: a senior executive who