a ‘Pulitzer’
Is that like a ‘pilsner’ beer..
I`ll drink to that!!

If Robert does not get a Pulitzer – I will be happy to buy him a Pilsener when he visits Germany next time ;-)

I understand there is considerable uproar about my mode of transportation when I came to Washington to testify in regard to the challenges facing my company and the US auto industry in general.

It is completely accurate that I utilized a business jet owned by my company. It is also accurate that this mode of transportation is more expensive than commercial flights would have been. I can understand the public perception, particularly in light of how the story was spun in the media.

Let me provide you with some facts.

First, we have a corporate flight department because in many instances it allows us to move our people far more efficiently than commercial air. Time in our business can be critically expensive.When we need to move a team of production engineers from Lansing to our plant in Shreveport to fix a line problem, commercial flights would take all day – or, depending on the time the failure takes place, more than a day. Our corporate flights would be less than 3 hours to get to the site and begin to fix the problem.

In my case, yes, I did utilize corporate aviation assets to get to Washington. I fully intend to do so again should a similar event arise. To do otherwise would be irresponsible to my shareholders, employees and investors. I report to them, not to gadfly reporters, or to inept agenda-laden “environmentalists” who would be happy to see us all live in nice clean caves.

As you must certainly know, this is a crisis for my firm and the entire US auto industry. Immediate attention is needed, including my full-time efforts on the matter. You seem to forget that the rapid rise in gasoline prices – brought on, I may add, by Washington’s continued lack of cohesive energy policy – caused a corresponding decline in demand for substantial parts of our product line. Then credit dried up over the past year, again reducing auto demand. Our product line wasn’t the proximate problem. Your lack of energy policy and sloppy oversight of the financial industry led us to this.

As for the “big SUVs” you tend to vilify, here’s a flash for you, Senator: we were building those because that’s what the public wanted. There has not been a single Chevrolet Suburban sold at the point of a gun. At least not in this country. Another flash, Senator: amid your adulation for Japanese companies supposedly only building small cars, you’ve missed the facts. Until very recently, these companies were scrambling to put up factories in Texas and Mississippi to build large trucks and SUVs. But in regard to the current crisis, let’s get it straight: demand has fallen over 30% – and there’s no company that can easily or quickly adjust.

Back to the corporate jet. I have a company in crisis and must be in touch at all times. On the corporate jet I have communication with all parts of my company at all times. I conduct business while on that airplane. This being a crisis, I find that is far more effective than being out of pocket, lining up at Detroit Metro, waiting in line at the TSA that you toss money at regardless of its effectiveness, then waiting again to board the flight. Then there is the sloppy air traffic control system you inflict on the public, which requires airlines to fly in excess of the time they really need to, and gives me a 20% chance of not arriving on schedule, anyway.

This is a crisis. I had a meeting with you and your committee that was crucial to my company. Use of the corporate jet was necessary and the best use of my time. Again referring to the ATC system you seem to tolerate, it was the best use of your committee’s time too, assuring I would be there when the hearings started.

Funny, but I don’t seem to have been able to find your outrage on others’ use of private jets. Take Robert Rubin – he’s the guy that got paid over $100 million by Citi Group just before it tanked and congress, almost without a peep, bailed it out for $200 billion – far more than my industry is looking for. (How many manufacturing jobs does Citi provide, by the way?) I’m sure Mr. Rubin is using private jets for some of his transportation needs. After all, isn’t he also an advisor to the President-Elect?

You’re calling my use of a corporate jet “hypocrisy” – yet I cannot locate any such outrage on your part regarding Ai Gore’s continued used of such aircraft. And isn’t he the one constantly babbling about “carbon footprints” and “global warming” and other not-to-be-questioned voodoo?

I regret the media circus. I regret the situation my industry is in at the moment. But we need to focus on solutions and on facts, not innuendo. This corporate jet thing is nonsense. I will use the resources I have to make my company as efficient as possible. The corporate flight department is part of those resources.

Sincerely

Auto Industry CEO for thought….

The basic problem is that egos are large, and people have a generally difficult time separating criticism of an idea from criticism of themselves. Until we fundamentally change our language/culture, this article will only show an extreme case of human nature.

Within the car industry, Toyota/Honda probably do better because the quality culture they embraced post-war separated performance of the system from performance of the individual. This supports institutionalization of practices like continuous improvement, listening to your customers, etc.

I think it’s the real root cause of the D3’s decline.

As for toxic corporate cultures, as bad as GM’s may be, it surely can’t be as bad as FoMoCo’s during Bennett’s reign of terror as old Henry’s ventriloquist.

GM may be a classic case of “bureaupathology” as explained in Victor Thompson’s wonderful book “Modern Organization.”

” GM’s incestuous culture is stuffed with spies– people employed by management” ….

Agree with most of what’s been reported about the culture – except for these statements about hired spies and team puking. Those seem a bit over the top.

Unfortunately most big corporate cultures tend to gravitate towards the “tell-the-boss-only-happy-thoughts” school of managing upwards.

And it does only get (100X) worse when everyones’ job is on the line. If you make a risky move and end up screwing the pooch you could be tagged for layoff; so better to keep your head down, out-of-the-box thoughts to yourself, don’t make eye contact with anyone, try to blend in and hope for the best.

The worst culture I’ve ever seen was during Jac Nasser’s reign of terror at Ford. He was one nasty piece of work. There were record profits then yet the environment was as bad or worse than it is now. But even then people weren’t barfing in the urinals.

When one encounters a social construct based on fiefdoms, cronyism, seniority, and relatively low-stakes amateurish Machiavellian intrigue, there can only be one solution to fix it, and we have it at hand…

Throw ~600 politicians and bureaucrats with blank checks at the problem, and do it by committee! With such a sound solution in place any day now, I see nothing but roses for Wagoner and the crew. I’m calling my broker at Lehman Bro…., er, Goldman Sachs Bank and saying “BUY! BUY! BUY!” Million$ here I come!

Your “Downfall” line was the most brutally funny thing I’ve read in quite a while.

Detroit.

Yeah. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. In any event, I’ve lived in and worked in several other states, for companies large and small, and have not seen that type of culture anywhere else.

My first job out of college, I tried to tell the management that our production computer system was obsolete and that it was in fact officially out of support.

My manager and his boss told me to stop saying this because it might scare the executives or even the programmers in our IT department.

My response was that the programmers already knew this, and it was a source of career frustration for them, as well as a top reason for so many of them leaving the company. What I didn’t tell them was that it was also a top reason for my own active job search (at that time). But I had to keep mum about that, because I knew that they had tried to scuttle past employees’ chances…just out of spite.

They told me to stop talking about it, and that’s that. A couple weeks later, after I had found my own new job and given my notice, they accused me of continuing to discuss it, and continuing to rile up the programmers. I told them I hadn’t done that, but they walked me to the door.

This “shoot the messenger” attitude was so “Dilbert-like”. And Dilbert and his Pointy Haired Boss hadn’t even made their debut yet!

Another Detroit area company I worked for had a culture of blame-laying, even for people who did all the right things in tough situations! After one particularly bad performance review and several public “in front of the department” dressing downs, they had me so knotted up inside that my girlfriend later said that I was not my usual self and that I was heading for a stroke or heart attack.

While only in my mid-30’s!

About a week later, at my wits’ end, I walked to a neighboring shopping mall’s bank of pay phones and did a telephone interview with a company outside of Michigan. I didn’t even have a current resume yet, but they offered and I accepted a 6-month contract job without even seeing the company headquarters or meeting the people. That new job only lasted me the aforementioned 6 months, but I believe it was my own personal “liberation,” the beginning of a new life for me; a life AWAY from Detroit, and a life of greater personal empowerment.

Yes, these are anecdotal stories, maybe meaningless in the big picture. Maybe it wasn’t “Detroit” per se that was at the root of my unhappiness, maybe all I needed to do was take control of my own career, hence, take control of my own life.

I’ll never know for sure. But now, nearly 20 years later, I can honestly say that I don’t long for Detroit and those bad old vibes, that’s for sure.

I wish everybody good luck and success in finding satisfying, well paying work that they can get excited about.

I couldn’t agree more.

And I hope the government, in granting GM a bailout, realizes that despite GM’s new plan, it cannot be accomplished with the present management. New blood is needed and fresh thinkers are required to make the hard decisions and see to it that GM get’s back on track.

Source verified (and he ain’t no spring chicken). And it’s an exact quote.

And so how exactly is this different from life in any large American corporation? No matter what the industry? I’ve worked in software my whole life, and the description of the “no dissent allowed” culture at GM is exactly what I’ve encountered at every large software maker I’ve ever worked for.

Not a software company, but in my personal experience working for a bankrupt company that mentality was one of the first things we shed. I think part of the process is admitting the old ways obviously failed and if a new better way isn’t found then the restructuring can’t work.

There was a period of about a year with us where all processes were open for discussion and some very large changes were made. By sticking to their guns and relying on “bridge-loans” they pass on the real opportunity to fix themselves in more ways than just shedding dealers & labor contracts.

Exactly. I work in IT.

This is another reason why outsourcing is so popular. The overseas workers just do as their told without annoyances such as “thoughts” and “insights”. I’m afraid that this culture is a feature of most large American companies.

Having said that, my b.s. meter does spike just a wee bit when I read things like “careers clubbed like baby seals”. This does not sound like an automotive executive; it sounds like a college student who flunked Hyperbole 101. Please tell me that you verified your sources.

The number one reason people leave (not get fired or bought out, leave of their own accord) is lack of mobility and freedom. I’ve left two for that reason: I smacked into the ceiling and a lateral move wasn’t an option.

Bad people do not quit, at least not in significant numbers. Bad people get fired, or bought off, but they do not quit and–above the level of pump jockey or night security guard–they never disparage their former employers publicly for fear they won’t get a decent reference.

At a “sick” company like GM (or, say, Bell Canada) only the bad people stick around. The good people are gone in six months to three years; anyone who’s still there has risen to the level of their incompetence and is not going anywhere.

Once, after previewing proposed changes to employee compensation at one large software company, I wrote a very calm e-mail to my boss (and only to my boss) explaining how these changes would make it harder to retain valued employees in what was then a hot market. Well, my boss shared my concerns up the ladder. Imagine my surprise and horror when my e-mail generated (a) a phone call from the CEO to my boss ordering her to “get me in line”; (b) a private meeting with HR delivering the same message to me; and (c) a follow-up call from the COO to my boss to verify that I was now “on board with the company’s strategy.”

The American corporation is inherently Stalinist. Which is why captains of industry generally fall flat on their faces when they try to get into politics, because there they have to actually listen to dissent.

Shock.

If GM’s executives prove anything, it’s that incompetence would appear to be a requirement for staying on the payroll.

From here, GM looks like the sort of organization that qualified, motivated people would want to leave. Anyone who has enough self-respect to value being competitive and avoiding groupthink is going to want to escape that sort of stifling environment.

They may stay while they look for alternative jobs or get their financial houses in order, but smart ambitious people are going to be running for the exits. It may explain why the diehards who stay are such diehards; they are the people who can’t survive in cultures that don’t thrive on excuse making or on blaming everyone but themselves for their plight.