Loose Lips Sink Ships: Akerson Stops Leaks, Starts New Ones
There goes the prestige
Rarely do Dan Akerson, the CEO of GM, and TTAC see eye to eye. This time, they do. Two weeks ago, we complained that GM is leaking like a scuttled steamer. Yesterday, Dan Akerson took the whole company to task: “We have to stop leaking in this company. It’s an act of treason — it really is,” Akerson said in an internal video conference with GM employees. The conference tape was promptly leaked to the Detroit News, and it contained more leaks.
After GM’s Chief Marketing Office Joel Ewanick was ousted under murky circumstances, the company officially threw dirt after him (“Failed to meet the expectations that the company has for its employees.”) Soon thereafter, Ewanick found himself under a barrage of leaks, each more childish than the other. Akerson wants the leaking to stop. And while the former Navy officer is shoring up the ship, he leaks some more.
The Detroit News was “given access to a recording of the call” and says that Akerson complained about
“a recent Bloomberg News report on the dismissal of marketing executive Joel Ewanick — over internal frictions and failure to disclose the full cost of a $559 million soccer deal — “was almost verbatim what happened. That is unfair to anybody whether you think he’s right, wrong or in-between.”
Well, thank you for leaking that Bloomberg had it right. Now they don’t have to rely on “people familiar with the matter,” they have their confirmation right from the boss.
Akerson said employees would have to sign a document called “Winning With Integrity.”
A GM spokeswoman promptly told the Detroit News “that the document is not new, and that employees have had had to sign a compliance form for at least 10 years.”
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Carbiz...where was GM's loyalty when they were selling Toyotas, Suzukis, and Isuzus under the GEO banner in their Chevy stores? I'll tell you where their loyalty lies--WITH THE MONEY. They will sell ANYTHING to make money, and why wouldnt they? Most of the general public these days feels no loyalty to GM, 2 generations of consumers have grown up on imports. Many of which were made in the USA. Outside of trucks, Camaros and Corvettes, most people under 50 years of age think of GM in the same way commedian David Brenner spoke of Denny's restaurants: "Nobody goes to Denny's, they END UP at Denny's"
What a shame. When GM went bankrupt, they had the chance to restructure into a lean company. All that was required was a normal bankruptcy process. This would have been very bad for the UAW, but very good for the Metro Detroit area. But, the US government got involved and did a prepackaged bankruptcy to protect all the politically correct waste at the automaker. All done with your taxpayer dollars.