Whitacre Shakes Up GM Management. Again. Still.
The AP reports that GM’s Ed Whitacre is reshuffling executives, turning an already-nervous RenCen on its head. Whitacre has elevated global engineering boss Mark Reuss to take charge of US operations, not an entirely surprising decision as the former Holden boss’s star had clearly been rising. Considerably more shocking was Whitacre’s decision to strip Bob Lutz of his marketing position and roll that responsibility into Susan Docherty’s Sales position. But don’t cry for the man called Maximum: Lutz will remain vice-chairman, will become “an adviser on global product development,” personally advising Whitacre on the auto industry. Nick Reilley, who has been GM’s international fix-it man, has been appointed President of GM Europe, while Diana Tremblay has been named vice president, Manufacturing and Labor Relations. “I want to give people more responsibility and authority deeper in the organization and then hold them accountable,” Whitacre said in GM’s statement, found here.
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As an exec Ed is known to be very cheap guy with no passion for new technology. SBC under his guidance was quite behind other telcos on technology and they still are (have you seen Verizon ads making fun of AT&T network). On one hand it is good for us taxpayers, on another hand we all know that they will fail anyway, so maybe cheap bustard is good thing for the Government Motors. Putz ughm Lutz, I am not so sure.
Mad Susan is still here? It keeps getting worse.
Reuss is a good operator. I've met him a few times at various industry events over the years. He's personable, clear speaking and able to bind a team together for the common purpose. My understanding is that he does not get along with Lutz, with Lutz trying hard to meddle in the G8/Commodore during development. My guess is that's a good thing for GM product direction. He's handicapped by being a GM Lifer as with all the others, but he's benefited from being out of the scope of operations of GM NA for a few years here in Australia. GM Holden has to be run as a tight ship on small volumes via some clever packaging on a single (vastly improved) product (G8/Commodore). GM NA might finish his career however....
Reuss wasn't moved by Whitaker but by Henderson about two months ago. Careful trusting AP, guys.