Honoring Mr. Bob Lutz

Dear Bob,
Sooo sorry to hear you go Bob.... The Design Team(Ed Welburn & the team) will miss you; the new products "in the tube" will miss you; THe LA Auto Show, The Detroit Auto Show and The New York Int. Auto Show will miss you; Jalopnik and Wes will miss you; Cadillac CTS-V will miss you; Monticello Club,NY will miss you; GM's vehicle testing/proving grounds will miss you; the relevant media will miss you; The new Camaro's will miss you; The company cars in which you smoked your cigars will miss you; I will miss you; my Blogs will miss you; THE 'AUTOMOTIVE WORLD' WILL DEFINITELY MISS YOU; even Ed Whitacre will miss you; certainly Susan Docherty will miss you?... 


So long Bob...Wishing you a very, very happy & healthy ^post GM^ life... No one, if my memory is not fooling with me, served the world of cars as much and as long as you did Bob...


I sincerely thank you so much as just another car enthusiast.

M. Melih Tuzmen

Istanbul-Turkey 

Bob LUTZ; A gr8 guy..!

Bob Lutz to Retire May 1

2010-03-03

DETROIT – General Motors Vice Chairman Robert A. Lutz will retire effective May 1, 2010, capping a 47-year career in the global auto industry that included senior leadership positions at four of the world’s leading automakers.

Lutz, 78, rejoined GM September 1, 2001, as the head of product development, and has led the company’s resurgence in developing great cars and trucks.  He also worked at BMW, Chrysler and Ford.

“The influence Bob Lutz has had on GM’s commitment to design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles will last for years to come,” GM 

CEO and Chairman Ed Whitacre said.  “I, along with many other men and women in GM and throughout the industry, have greatly benefited from his passion, wisdom and guidance.”

Lutz said he decided to retire now in part because hot-selling vehicles like the Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac SRX, GMC Terrain, Chevrolet Equinox and Chevrolet Camaro, along with the growing strength of GM’s four brands, prove that a product-focused mindset inside the company is in place for the long term.

Bob LUTZ

“I can confidently say that the job I came here to do more than nine years ago is now complete – the team I have been fortunate to lead has far exceeded my expectations,” Lutz said.  “Our product lineup is as strong as it has been in GM’s history.  The perception of our products and brands is beginning to catch up with reality. And most importantly, the absolute commitment to being a product-driven company is ingrained throughout the organization – from the top down – and I am confident that, under Ed Whitacre’s leadership, the straightforward, singular focus on product will endure.”

Lutz, a GM vice chairman, was appointed senior advisor in December 2009 and will continue to provide guidance on design and key product initiatives until he retires May 1.

Lutz Isn’t Leaving

But he’s not going to just be GM’s mascot, vice chairman says.


Reports of Bob Lutz’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.  Just ask the septuagenarian General Motors vice chairman.
It’s been a chaotic month at GM, with a CEO fired, a new Buick boss quitting after just eight days, and enough other personnel changes to require a scorecard to keep up.  When Vice Chairman Bob Lutz was stripped of his duties as marketing czar, two weeks ago, many observers were ready to bet that the former Marine pilot would be the next out the dooR. They would have bet wrong, said Lutz, who turned out for a Wednesday night preview of new Chevrolet products.  “I’m happy as a clam,” the 77-year-old Swiss-born Lutz proclaimed while leaning against the next-generation Chevy Malibu.

“If left to me, as long as I have the energy, as long as I have my health, as long as I have my drive and ability to contribute,” he asserted, “I’ll stay.  If not, I’ll retire.”  Of course, Lutz quickly added, “I serve at the will of the Board,” and, in particular, the will of GM’s determined new Chairman and Acting CEO Ed Whitacre, Jr.

Whitacre seems determined to reshape GM, even if it means completely changing the corporate management team.  In fact, Lutz noted, he’s just about “the last man standing.” In the eight years since he joined the automaker, he noted, only two of the top 50 executives at the company remain – himself and Tom Stephens, who earlier this year took over Lutz’s formal role as GM’s product development boss.
If he’s no longer product czar and no longer overseeing marketing, what exactly is Lutz doing?  “I’m doing everything Ed Whitacre isn’t,” he explained, serving as a sort of “coordination person.”  Whitacre, GM insiders reveal, isn’t the traditional top-down manager.  While he sets tough performance standards, he prefers to empower his management team and then set them off to deliver results.  In many ways, Lutz is
the man in-between.

“Ed Whitacre and the Board expect me to make sure that the philosophy of building the world’s best cars is not diluted,” said Lutz.
Another duty, suggested Mark Reuss, GM’s new president of North American operations, is serving as the company’s repository of institutional knowledge.  In a career that has spanned nearly half a century, Lutz has worked for some of the giants of the industry, including not only General Motors, but BMW, Ford and, during its better days, Chrysler.
“I talk with him for two hours every week about everything,” said Reuss.  “I’m lucky to have that kind of knowledge coming to me.”
One reason why Lutz seems ready and willing to stay is that he and Whitacre appear to have a similar approach to management.  The GM chairman, Lutz explains, “is a very intuitive manager, and so am I.  Give us two sheets of paper and a few numbers or you’re wasting our time.”

Whether Lutz will continue to find his new role rewarding enough remains to be seen.  He’s not the type to be comfortable showing up when the media wants a good quote, then settling back to watch others run things.  “I have never been a very good mascot,” Lutz said with a grin and a soft chuckle as a horde of reporters descended upon him to ask about his new role.

VIA: 

Will Bob Lutz be GM's Next Chief Executive Officer?

Bob Lutz at 2009 LA Auto Show

Will Bob Lutz be GM's Next Chief Executive Officer?

Posted Today 08:00 PM by Todd Lassa -Motor Trend Blog

DETROIT - It's not as outrageous as it sounds. Lutz, who has worked for General Motors, Ford, BMW, Chrysler and GM again will be 78 years old in February. As Chairman Ed Whitacre's right-hand-man, Lutz will help make sure Whitacre will pick the right man or woman to be GM's next CEO. If Whitacre is smart -- and he is -- there will be no more chairman/CEO, like Rick Wagoner, or CEO/president, like Fritz Henderson.

Mark Reuss' quick ascendancy at age 46 is a great, inspired choice. While Reuss is a second-generation GM lifer, he's a dyed-in-the-driving gloves car guy, and one who already is shaking up the traditional notions of how America's biggest automaker should be run.

Reuss easily could be CEO some day. Meanwhile, Whitacre has made it clear he wants quick changes, the type Alan Mulally has made at Ford Motor Company. While Mulally came from another type of manufacturing background with Boeing, he didn't understand how long product development takes in the auto industry. More importantly, Mulally changed the corporate culture at Ford, inspiring mid- and lower-level management to speak up at meetings, and to keep meetings short and to the point.

While he has been entrenched in the auto industry for most of the past 46 years, Lutz, too, is known for open, free-wheeling meetings in which car guys and other management get a chance to exchange ideas, rather than kiss up to the boss. Certainly, Whitacre has encountered that in his five months at GM.

At GM, Henderson, yet another in a long line of powerpoint addicts, is gone.

You'll remember that Wagoner asked Lutz, who was then heading up Exide batteries, to help find him a "car guy" to be his right-hand man. Lutz had just turned 70 when he recruited himself to the job, and the rest is history.

He has made many mistakes at GM, but they're the good kind. Yes, the Kappa platform probably cost GM far more money than it made, but it was GM's first attempt at a low-cost two-seat, four-cylinder sports car since before the Mazda Miata launch. Zeta and the Pontiac GTO predecessor fell short, as well, but I suspect both Lutz and Reuss see a North American-produced RWD Chevy Caprice and Buick Electra as viable, relatively low-volume products for the future, so long as GM can extract some mass out of the Zeta platform.

The good news is that GM has good, high-volume product that should offset the costs of Kappa and Zeta, and Lutz also deserves credit for seeing to it that cars like the Chevy Malibu, Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac CTS are world class.

So will Lutz become GM's next CEO? He's helping Whitacre on an "international search," but they're bound by salary restrictions so long as they've been propped up by U.S. Treasury funds. Lutz doesn't want to work for "peanuts" either. However, he's living quite comfortably already, and he's always been just a step below the top job, having been shut out by lesser minds at Chrysler in the '90s. He might have to sell another jet.

One advantage for GM is that at Lutz's age, being CEO should automatically be an "interim" position, one that would presumably bridge the company to an IPO and put it in a better position for an international search. And it would give Whitacre time to see whether guys like Reuss are truly capable of the kind of change he wants.

On the other hand, Lutz has displayed no signs of slowing down since he re-joined GM. As CEO, he could be in charge for another seven years.

Crazy idea maybe, but given how he recruited himself in 2002, I wouldn't bet against it.

Source: Motor Trend Blog 

riskyinstinct  : (Today 08:33 PM) 

It doesn't sound outrageous one single bit. BUT I think Lutz' s been, on purpose(of some sort I believe) staying away from such an assignment.

One Hell of a guy in PR & Product. He has been doing very good with BOLD messages as a new advertising theme and pointing his index finger towards more and more products to build up the core brands' product line. GM owes him and is corporate followers a gr8 deal for the 'inflection points' he has created for GM's post-bankruptcy sales and brands' public awareness. He wouldn't be willing to deal with the 'dull' finance issues and would never be a 'D.C.'s good boy' at GM. Lutz needs to breathe thru his own nose, if u will, and keep launching new products, organise challenges(the CTS-V challenge) that raises gr8 publicity over the net, get the media across- but never too far away- frequently to hear him out. He has to be in the kitchen with Ed Welburn and his team instead of board meetings... 

Conclusively, I think WE would lose him if he ever got to become the CEO. He tastes as good as ever at where he is.../MT

Bob Lutz on know-nothing analysts and "cars" of the future

Bob Lutz, vice chairman of General Motors Co., was in feisty form
 earlier this month during  an interview with Chicago Tribune columnist Greg Burns.

He expressed frustration about ideas advanced by Wall Street analysts and business reporters, while defending his new-product development pipeline: It’s “jammed full,” he said. And as for the car of the future? There isn’t one. But there will be “cars” of the future.

An edited Q-and-A transcript follows:

Q-Is the outlook for new products as troubled as some Wall Street analysts suggest?

A- “These guys don't know. They absolutely don't know. They're just guessing. They don't know what our product line is. We've got the pipeline jammed full of stuff. Every vehicle is headed for complete replacement, six-speed automatic gear boxes throughout.”

Q-Has GM skimped on product development?

A-“No. Nothing could be further from the truth. We did some three- and six-month delays. Those cars have all come out. That’s behind us. The focus of the product plan was maintained.”

Q-Are GM’s plans for North American production too optimistic?

A-“I keep getting asked: We see that General Motors is boosting North American production by 40 percent over last year. Stuffing the dealers full of cars they can't sell sounds like the bad, old General Motors. Some reporters compared U.S. production this year to global North American production including Canada. The real number? It's up a little bit, up only through the fact that we were producing below demand this year. Next year we will be producing to demand.”

Q-What is your market-share target?

A-“We have no market-share target. One of the mistakes this company made in the past is that it felt that market share was some sort of sacrosanct thing that you spend a lot of money acquiring...like seizing an objective and holding it. Market share is volatile from month to month. Buying market share for strategic purposes is totally idiotic. We had 21 percent share in October and that was not by performing any unnatural acts.”

Q-What will the GM car fleet look like in 2020 or 2030, and what fuel will it run on?

A-“It will be a blend. It's going to break down by specific function. The urban commuter with daily driving of under 100 miles will go all-electric. For medium distances, it will be something like the Chevrolet Volt, electric plus an additional 200-to-300 miles through gas or ethanol fuels. In highway trucks, it’s impossible to envisage any other solution than diesel. That’s by far the most efficient.”

Q-What about making vehicles more connected electronically?

A-“Technically we can do that now. OnStar calls 911 if the air bags go off. Diagnostic emails come once a month. We have turn-by-turn navigation. We can make the car into a mobile office with email-to-voice, voice-to-email. Facebook, YouTube. The technology is here today. Is the driver going to have any time left over to actually drive the car?”

VIA:

Blazing Buicks! 335-hp Regal GS, Regal Sport Wagon Being Discussed

GM vice chairman Bob Lutz visited Hollywood for the unveiling of the 2011 Buick Regal. Car & Driver had the rare opportunity to sit down with him and ask what else GM has in mind for its new Euro-tuned sedan. Being studied, he said, are a manual-transmission model and all-wheel drive (which is pretty much a given), as well as a 335-hp, all-wheel-drive range-topper, all of which would complement the front-wheel-drive four-cylinder models that have been announced.

Vaunted Regals include the Grand National and GNX and later the GS and SLP-tuned GSX. Lutz himself used the letters “GS” in the same breath as “335 hp” and “AWD.” Such a variant (rendered above for your viewing pleasure) makes perfect sense given that Opel sells a pretty hot Insignia OPC with a 325-hp turbocharged 2.8-lilter V-6, a six-speed manual, and all-wheel drive.

Lutz confirmed that not only was a Regal Sport Wagon under consideration, but that a Buick version of the Insignia Sports Tourer had been part of the American product plan from the beginning—until, that is, the financial crisis prompted GM to divert the cash required for re-engineering and federalizing the wagon away to other, more pressing programs.

SOURCE: 

GM Execs In Hollywood: Bob Lutz-Susan Docherty-Ed Welburn

Lutz will chair Opel board; CEO Forster will leave Head of GM's international unit, Nick Reilly, seen as replacement

DETROIT -- Bob Lutz, General Motors Co.'s top marketing boss, will chair the supervisory board of GM's Opel unit and help steer a restructuring plan there now that GM has decided to retain control of the European automaker, a source close to GM told Automotive News today.

Lutz, 77, will not take a direct management role in Opel, the source said. The supervisory board meets three or four times a year. Lutz already is a member of the Opel supervisory board. The appointment will likely be made next week, the source said.
Lutz's added responsibilities were reported today by The Wall Street Journal.

JAMIE LAREAU 
AND PHILIP NUSSEL 
AUTOMOTIVE NEWS-UPDATED: 11/6/09

GM's Lutz to Oversee Opel

General Motors Co.'s marketing chief, Robert A. Lutz, will be installed to head the Opel GmbH supervisory board as the auto maker looks to implement a new restructuring plan and find a new leader for the European after its board of directors decided earlier this week to retain control of it, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Lutz's role isn't expected to be a direct management post as much as it is an oversight role. The supervisory board's next meeting is slated for the middle of November.

BY JOHN STOLL AND VANESSA FUHRMANS-NOVEMBER 6, 2009