Mark, Susan...What Do You Say About Ed Whitacre?

Top GM Executives Share Their Opinions Of New/Interim CEO (And Chairman) Ed Whitacre

Dec. 14, 2009

A recent conference call with Mark Reuss (newly-appointed president of GM North America) and Susan Docherty (vice president of Sales, Service and Marketing) provided some more information about chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre – particularly his management style, personality, and goals for the company. Whitacre, who retired as chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T in 2007, was appointed chairman of the “new GM” on June 9 (2009). On December 1st, after the sudden resignation of Fritz Henderson, Whitacre also added CEO to his title. Since not much information was provided about Henderson’s departure, it has been speculated that Whitacre and Henderson bumped heads on many issues and that Fritz was ultimately shown the door. As such, many wondered whether Whitacre was going on a plain-old power grab – hoarding as much power to himself as possible. Reuss’ and Docherty’s comments during the conference call have revealed that the “power grab” rumor couldn’t be further from the truth.

Both executives spoke highly of Whitacre and said that he is very goal-oriented, genuine, and has high expectations for everyone at GM. Instead of a summary, here is the transcribed text from Mark and Susan:

Mark:

What I don’t want on my comments is to look like just because I just got promoted, that I’m in love with the new CEO…. this guy is one of the most honest, genuine people that I’ve met. And forget about whether it’s in the auto industry or anything else he is a terrific person and so that’s really important to me… and the integrity and the honesty and the straightforwardness is something that I personally value a lot… and I’ll leave it at that.

Susan:

… over the last 60 days in my role as VP of sales, I’ve had a chance to interact with him while he was the chairman of the board of directors… he’s obviously now added CEO to his title… my observations would be that he digs very deep into the organization and wants to unleash talent within the organization which I think is positive… I think that even though he does not consider himself an auto expert he asks great questions and from a personal standpoint I would say that he’s pretty clear that he expects people to perform… he wants positive business results and if he sees something that’s off track he’s gonna hold me in particular and I’m sure all executives accountable.. I happen to have a product right now that has a pretty ___-day supply and there isn’t a time that he doesn’t ask me about what it is that myself and the team are doing to go and resolve it and to be quite frank with you – I like being accountable for that… he’s not telling me how to solve the problem but he’s pretty clear with me that he expects me to solve it… and as a leader, there isn’t anything more that I could ask from him than to support me in that effort but I certainly know where I stand in terms of where his expectations are of me.

When asked whether they had any idea about Whitacre’s plan to remain as CEO and Chairman (emphasis on the CEO part), both Reuss and Docherty replied that they didn’t know.

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Dearly hope they ALL will succeed.../MT

Ed Whitacre's Secret Plan To Save GM..??

"Taxpayers looking for answers may have to wait awhile."
Forbes-Editorial

New General Motors Chairman Edward E. Whitacre Jr. was quick to dismiss the automaker's former chief executive after just eight months on the job, saying GM wasn't moving fast enough. But if Whitacre, who took over as CEO while GM searches for a permanent replacement, has a better idea of how to run the company, he's not sharing it publicly.

And for American taxpayers who now own 60% of the automaker by virtue of a $50 billion federal bailout, that's reason to worry. Since forcing out Frederick "Fritz" Henderson as CEO on Dec. 2, Whitacre, the former chairman and chief executive of AT&T ( T - news - people ), has had three opportunities to publicly share his strategy for fixing GM. But instead of demonstrating the kind of public accountability he demands from others within GM, he seems to be avoiding it so far.

Whitacre called a news conference Dec. 2 to announce Henderson's departure, but he refused to take any questions. Then, on Tuesday, he backed out of a conference call with reporters, opting instead for a carefully controlled "Web chat" later the same day, during which he could choose which written questions to answer. He ignored four or five questions about his strategic priorities but did answer when asked where he was (in a conference room at GM's Detroit headquarters, he wrote. "It's kind of cold in here.")

Maybe that explains his icy responses to questions about the challenges GM still faces, five months after emerging from bankruptcy.

No, he's not satisfied with GM's 2009 performance, but he wouldn't share the company's objectives for 2010 sales and market share--"as much as we can get," he wrote.

A stock offering, he wrote, will occur "when we're ready." There are no plans for further job cuts. He does not want a chief operating officer or president to serve as his right-hand man. Negotiations to sell Saab are continuing. The company has "a real good candidate" for chief financial officer. His new management team will be "terrific." The future in Europe looks "great." GM will continue to do well in the Asian market, which is "big and growing."

What he didn't address: exactly how he intends to speed up GM's mission "to design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles” now that he's in charge, or how he'll measure the progress of his newly appointed management team. When asked how long the young cadre of executives has to show results before their jobs are in jeopardy, Whitacre wrote, "Not long. :-)"

Yes, Whitacre and his new board of directors have pushed through some major changes since GM emerged from bankruptcy on July 10. They reversed a decision to sell GM's European Opel division, citing its crucial engineering value. And after pushing out Henderson, Whitacre chose Mark Reuss, an engineer, (not a finance specialist as in the past) to be president of GM's core North American operations.

He's also urged GM to be more aggressive in its marketing efforts, which is yielding results.

But GM, which reported a net loss of $1.15 billion for the shortened third quarter (July 10-Sept. 30), still has a long way to go.

"We want to make this country proud of this company again," said Reuss, who, along with Susan Docherty, vice president of sales and marketing, filled in for Whitacre on the media conference call. "The only way I know how to stabilize this company ... is to make, sell and develop better vehicles than anybody else," Reuss said. "I've told our engineering folks, and now I'm telling everybody in North America, we need to focus on being the best. The words 'competitive' and 'good enough' are gone from our vocabulary."

If GM does that, Reuss said, its other problems "will take care of themselves."


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GM's Reuss and Docherty: We Will Earn, Not Buy, Our Market Share

2009-12-08

The way to success for Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac comes down to one thing: sell, sell, sell.

“We need to sell every vehicle we can, customer by customer, dealer by dealer, here, in Canada and Mexico,” GM North America President Mark Reuss said today during a conference call with media. “We’re not setting a metric (for market share) until we do that.”

Added Susan Docherty, vice president of Sales, Service and Marketing: “The old GM tended to buy market share. We’re going to earn our market share.”

That means letting customer demand, not filling plant capacity, drive the decision of what and how much to build.

“We need to be able to flex that capacity,” Docherty said. “When something is hot, we need to be able to put our foot on the gas like we did by adding a third shift to meet demand for the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain.”

Reuss and Docherty spoke to news media for the first time since being promoted to their new positions last Friday. They responded to other questions, including:

60-Day Money Back Guarantee: Since the promotion was launched in mid-September, just 163 of more than 300,000 vehicles have been returned for a refund.

Fuel Economy vs. Content: Reuss said there is “no peanut butter answer” to the question. “Fuel prices are going to be volatile. Finding the balance between good gas mileage and functional use, such full-size pickups used for work, comes down to correctly reading what customers want.

2010 Goals: Reuss said repaying money borrowed from the U.S. and Canadian governments, making the country proud of GM though its products and reemerging as a public company are at the top of the list.

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