Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Wow. Wagoner started off right by eliminating Oldsmobile but was scared of doing much more because of all the lawsuits against GM by the dealerships. His fear led to the board to try to oust him. They called for a meeting to decide on what to do about him. A member of the board who was completely loyal to Wagoner called Wagoner to inform him of what was going on. Wagoner went to the board before the meeting and told them he was on the verge of quitting. The board knew that if he quit, the the blame falls on the board (because of what and how he told them). The board wanted to be seen taking the step of elminating Wagoner on their terms which would help their stock prices and make it easy for them to get a new CEO and get new plans put into place. When GM and Chrysler were in financial mess, they went to the UAW for concessions. The concessions the union agreed to was far less than the company was asking for and cost far less than what the company was losing. The concessions amounted to a bandaid on a severed leg. What was ironic was Mercedes owned Chrysler and was trying to buy FIAT. FIAT, thanks to a horrible business deal with GM (horrible for GM, great for FIAT), FIAT bounced back and now owns Chrysler, the company Mercedes gave up. What's amazing in the book is the backroom deals and power moves. I have more respect for Bill Ford than before. He admitted he was in over his head and voluntarily stepped down as CEO of Ford, a decision which ultimately saved the company. Wish more CEOs would be as honest.
Cuts to GM could have been much deeper. Initially, the federal regulators wanted GM to kill all it's brands except for Chevy and Caddy. GM execs managed to convince the feds that Buick and GMC were profitable. Though GMC were mechanically exactly the same as Chevy trucks, customers are willing to pay a higher price for GMC trucks over Chevy trucks.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
