Good-bye Rick. The above photo of myself and Rick Wagoner was taken July 15, 2008, a day when Wagoner announced $15 billion in cost cuts - that was the path General Motors was on when the financial markets collapsed severely worsening the economic environment for not only GM but the world. During his eight years at the helm of General Motors there were times that Wagoner's ouster was considered but the fallback was that Rick knows the company and the business and how could a new guy get the job done better.
Hello Fritz.
Now Fritz Henderson
(right) is General Motors CEO who today called Wagoner "a fantastic guy, friend and mentor" and admitted, in his 25 years at GM, having a similar path to his former boss that included "speaking Portuguese" referring to their stints in Brazil.
President Obama needed to show he was serious about restructuring the auto industry so Wagoner was part of the shake up and "change". In his speech yesterday, the President, while talking a hard line, did assure the company's survival.
Fritz has 60 days to execute a revised business plan "to clean the balance sheet to allow us to be competitive" or General Motors faces bankruptcy reorganization. Henderson says "we are capable of doing it out of court" and claims "whatever it takes and that's what I'm going to do".
The new GM according to Henderson: "we said in our viability plan we're going to focus on four core brands" - "Chevy, Cadillac, Buick and GMC". Henderson says "Pontiac will be a niche brand in the BPG (Buick, Pontiac, GMC) channel" - what does that mean? What is Pontiac now?
Henderson says the news of a Hummer sale will be soon and Saturn will be cast off as well. He says the two broad messages are "go deeper, go harder" and "go faster".
I've said from the beginning that a General Motors Chapter 11 bankruptcy was the best route because the UAW needs to be forced to cut a lot more. Bankruptcy is dangerous because one judge calls all the shots whereas this quasi-bankruptcy government task force reorganization approach allows more discussion before drastic decisions are made. Pedal-to-metal Fritz!
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