New GM Chairman: "I Don't Know Anything About Cars"

New GM Chairman: "I Don't Know Anything About Cars"

Edward E. Whitacre Jr has been appointed as the new chairman of GM and will take post after the company emerges from chapter 11, despite admittedly knowing nothing about cars.

"I don’t know anything about cars," Whitacre, the 67-year-old former chairman of AT&T, said yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg News after his appointment. "A business is a business, and I think I can learn about cars. I’m not that old, and I think the business principles are the same."

But there has been concern in some quarters over his ability to lead the nation's biggest auto company out of bankruptcy. According to the Associated Press, Telecom industry analyst Victor Schnee called Whitacre's appointment "bizarre." Although Schnee admits that Whitacre has accomplished a great deal, he does not have much confidence in his ability to run GM better than previous management.

However, others seem to be more positive in the new appointee. "GM is not now about just making cars," Jim Hall, an auto industry consultant and former GM engineer, told Bloomberg. "It's about re-creating itself as a 21st-century car company. They have to have somebody at the top that understands they have to make a new GM.

Michael Robinet, an automotive analyst at CSM Worldwide Inc. told Bloomberg, "Let’s face it: The chairman is not necessarily operational… The chairman is about ensuring a strategy is followed."

GM's interim chairmen Kent Kresa said that Whitacre was "an excellent choice" after being recommended for the position by Steve Rattener, one of President Obama's senior automotive advisers.

“We need to bring back the confidence of the American public in this company,” Kent Kresa, the automaker's interim chairman, told the New York Times. “Having a strong board is a big piece of that.”


LAUREN FIX, The Car Coach SAYS:

SO WHAT IS HE GOOD AT:
If he doesn't know about cars then what good is he for GM?
Is Whitacre a good delegator - is what many of these executives really are?
Is Whitacre good at reading a teleprompter and motivating the people and management?
Is Whitacre good at attending meetings and using large words that confuse consumers?
Is Whtacre good at axing jobs and saving the company some money because the majority stock holder tells him too?
In order to be a great Chairman at GM, he needs to be an icon like Roger Smith and surround himself with people who are knowledgeable about cars!

It's not just GM that gets me so frustrated - it's the Automotive Task Force that also doesn't know what it's doing.

Do we really want the government to run the auto industry - ok, they say they don't want to run the auto industry. But want to watch over it in a "God like way". If that doesn't scare you in many ways then you are sleeping.

We will never see our taxpayer money back...
We know the government doesn't want to run the auto industry - but it is...
There is NO exit plan in place...
Don't we learn from history - look at the British Auto Industry - what industry? It's gone.
Now that they've given Chrysler away to Fiat - will the Italians close our plants in order to
bring in their small cars? It wouldn't surprise me.
Fiat is already keeping its executives in Italy to avoid our cap on executive salaries.
This is a sign of things to come ...

ON a brighter note - Ford is putting its best efforts forward and you will see that in the Fiesta and 2010 Taurus. GM is trying to come up with new products that have great fuel efficiency. So there is a serious shift in the auto industry.

Remember - the auto industry is the victim of the banking industry - NOT the criminal!