[ARCHIVED THREAD] - How would YOU fix GM? (Page 1 of 5)
Posted: 12/9/2008 2:37:49 PM EDT
| Serious question. How do you fix the negative perceptions of GM? |
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Break the union, get rid of all the lazy socialist scum. Start up again with workers who want to work and pay them wages and benefits comparable to what say Toyota would pay- nothing more. Close plants that dont produce, shrink the model line up- get rid of things like Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer divisions.
Put caps on CEO parachutes, packages and wages unless the company is doing well enough to afford such perks. Hang a few UAW stewards from the front gates to let the commies know that we arent fucking around 
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I don't know. It would not be as simple as some of y'all think.
I would breakdown their P&Ls line by line and start cutting the fat. I would look at suppliers and what could be done to trim the fat there. The real problem would be getting cars to market at a price with enough demand that would make the company viable. It is a BIG, BIG challenge. |
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Chapter 11 - that's what it's there for, not forcing American citizens to subsidize your shitty management.
While restructuring, and trying to get MORE concessions from the UAW (and making the same lame promises I made last time I got concessions from them), I'd probably try to pare down the company to three brands, maybe four. Something like Chevy to make small cars and trucks, Caddy/Saab to make luxury cars, GMC to make big trucks - and maybe a separate performance division for stuff like the Corvette, Camaro, etc. I'd also try to buy the Jeep division from Chrysler before the Chinese do. If all that fails, I'd try to shame/guilt/bribe the U.S. Congress into giving me lots of money. After all, overseas operations are NOT doing particularly poorly, and so even if I have to kill the U.S. division, the company itself will be fine. |
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Break the union, get rid of all the lazy socialist scum. Start up again with workers who want to work and pay them wages and benefits comparable to what say Toyota would pay- nothing more. Close plants that dont produce, shrink the model line up- get rid of things like Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer divisions. Put caps on CEO parachutes, packages and wages unless the company is doing well enough to afford such perks. Hang a few UAW stewards from the front gates to let the commies know that we arent fucking around Sounds good except I would keep Saturn and get rid of Buick. |
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1. Lay everyone off. Everyone. White collar, blue collar, gray collar, no collar. Everyone is done- except for a few bright individuals selected for forward thinking ability to help restructure and start over.
2. Close all the doors. End the line for every GM product that isn't Chevrolet, Cadillac, Saturn or Pontiac. No more duplicate models. Sell all infrastructure related to those duplicates. 3. Come up with a plan with your selected team to build fewer models of vehicles per brand, based on current and projected demand. Keep your best sellers. Ditch the rest. Hire more design people back (or new blood) and give them a long leash on the development on hybrid, plug in hybrid, small gas/diesel fuel efficient cars. 4. Bring facilities necessary for current demand of said product back on line. Open the doors to labor, sans UAW, pay them fairly, job out what you can't build to a large number of smaller OEM manufacturers who have a reputation for quality. 5. Executives hired in or hired back work for salary and a strict code of 'bonus for success' with no guarantees for stock, bonuses, or severance packages if they're failures. 6. Pray. I'm just a blue collar joe. I don't know if this is possible or how the technical financial stuff would work. I assume there would be a Chapter 11 involved. |
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Let the cookie crumble, file Chapter 11, then Cut out the union and the top 3 tiers of the corporate office and move the corporation out of union friendly states and into right to work states ... Thats how I'd do it, but I'd also remain open to other ideas and suggestions. |
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The produce the second best selling vehicle in America - the Silverado. I think they should cut all divisions except Chevy, GMC and Caddy. Chevy should produce The Malibu and the fullsize truck and SUV line all 1/2 ton. GMC should produce The Luxury 1/2 ton Truck and SUV as well as the 3/4 ton and up. And Cady should produce the Escalade, CTS and STS.
Shut down some locations, get rid of the UAW and focus on a few models and build them well. I don't like the idea of bailouts or salary caps. Both go against capitalism. |
If I knew how to run a multinational corporation, I wouldn't be an IT dork posting on a gun board.  But the first thing I would do is use my powers as GM CEO to convince congress to force Chrysler to lower the price on the Challenger (and increase production) as part of the bailout agreement. Second, I would insist on a forged rotating assembly in all standard GT Mustangs. I would do this by playing a metric shit ton of golf with Alan Mulally, and letting him touch my wife's boobs. Lastly, I would take a 1969 GTO out of the museum and give it to Taxman. |
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I was thinking about this on the way in....
I'd sell Buick to China. They want them, and the ones they design and build have a reputation for being better than the ones we have here. And I bet they last like a Lexus. I would re-distribute the dealerships to Domestic, Foreign (Europe), Foreign (Pacific), and Trucks. Each dealership would sell the best GM vehicles under that sector, without engineering the essence out of them. People buy foreign cars for a reason. There is no benefit from taking perfectly competitive GM cars from overseas (Holden, Rover, Opel, etc) and soften the suspension because a focus group says the US consumers like soft suspensions. Leave the brand names and import qualities alone. Then, get rid of the unions. I don't hear about the "foreign" car manufacturers who are producing cars in the US crying for bailouts––only the manufacturers that are getting taken by the UAW. (Sorry for any UAW members here, but it is how I feel.) If Toyota can produce a Camry here in the US and be profitible, why cant the Impala do the same? |
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If I knew how to run a multinational corporation, I wouldn't be an IT dork posting on a gun board.
But the first thing I would do is use my powers as GM CEO to convince congress to force Chrysler to lower the price on the Challenger (and increase production) as part of the bailout agreement. Second, I would insist on a forged rotating assembly in all standard GT Mustangs. I would do this by playing a metric shit ton of golf with Alan Mulally, and letting him touch my wife's boobs. Lastly, I would take a 1969 GTO out of the museum and give it to Taxman. Works for me. 
ETA: Didn't we already have a thread about this?? Ahh here it is: http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=791497 So DUPE~~ |
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I'd take the bail out money and give it to Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and whomever else that has a plant in the U.S. that is profitable and tell them to gear up, because they're going to have to pick up the slack from the big three that are going under.
Why would I reward bad behavior and stupid practices? I'd much rather invest money in successful companies that are well managed and produce products that people actually want. Not the answer you were looking for, but you don't fix things things by rewarding idiotic decisions. |
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Starting pay $12 per hour. Max out at $16-18. No retirement packages other than 401k. Thats pretty much what our line workers get. Couple of serious questions: How much turn over for the line workers? What kind of work? Cost of living in the area? What's the nationality/citizenship breakdown of the line workers? Brian |
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Declare bankruptcy (pre planned). Kick out the unions and bar them from ever returning. Get rid of bloated management and workforce.
Retool the plants and begin making cars that rival the quality of Honda and Toyota. Hire workers at a competitive wage that is commensurate with their job and experience. |
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You guys do realize that "break the union" isn't something the CEO can just will into existence, right? If it were that easy, the union would have been gone a loooooong time ago. The CEO can't get rid of the union. You need a lot of congress critters for that (to change laws). |
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I don't know. It would not be as simple as some of y'all think. I would breakdown their P&Ls line by line and start cutting the fat. I would look at suppliers and what could be done to trim the fat there. The real problem would be getting cars to market at a price with enough demand that would make the company viable. It is a BIG, BIG challenge. He asked how you'd fix the perception, not how you'd fix the company. |
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You guys do realize that "break the union" isn't something the CEO can just will into existence, right? If it were that easy, the union would have been gone a loooooong time ago. The CEO can't get rid of the union. You need a lot of congress critters for that (to change laws). It would be a lot easier in CH11. |
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You guys do realize that "break the union" isn't something the CEO can just will into existence, right? If it were that easy, the union would have been gone a loooooong time ago. The CEO can't get rid of the union. You need a lot of congress critters for that (to change laws). By declaring BK, GM can kick he UAW out on its collective bargaining ass (depending on the type of BK they declare). |
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Get THIS http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/05sh1Va8bX0aY/610x.jpg into production. Use the bailout to ramp up production of the vehicle and the battery units. Sell them for <$30k. The Volt? It's never going to see production, IMO. And if it does, it'll either be so expensive that nobody will want it unless gas hits $5/gallon, or GM will be selling them at a huge loss (which is not exactly a way to MAKE money). |
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Serious question. How do you fix the negative perceptions of GM? 1. Cut out Union. 2. Re-vamp R&D divisions (promote cadillac designers and engineers into other brands) 3. Offer #1 industry warranty on vehicles (i.e. BMW with full service warranty for some higher end brands like Cadillac). 4. Bring some European models to US. 5. Plan an R&D strategy for the next 2,5,10,15,20, and 50 years. In other words, attempt to predict and move ahead of the market. 6. Hire away management talent from companies like Hyundai, VW, and BMW. 7. CONDUCT AD CAMPAIGN THAT FLAUNTS THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE COMPANY AND THE RELIABILITY AND INNOVATION OF NEW PRODUCTS. 8. Restructure manufacturing plants to mirror VW (taking advantage of economies of scope since scale is already achieved). 9. Re-vamp retirement, healthcare, and other benefits for employees. 10. Institute performance only compensation package for executives for the next ten years. *11. Begin focusing more on outside U.S. markets such as China where GM already has a major advantage through domestic production of low-cost GM vehicles for export. That's all that I can think of for now. |
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Declare bankruptcy (pre planned). Kick out the unions and bar them from ever returning. Get rid of bloated management and workforce. Retool the plants and begin making cars that rival the quality of Honda and Toyota. Hire workers at a competitive wage that is commensurate with their job and experience. As an option build a basic car without all the space age bells, whistles, GPS's, voices, airbags, etc. Legislate all the trial lawyers and EPA out of the picture. Do the same for General Aviation. |
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I would look at suppliers and what could be done to trim the fat there.
There is no fat. Let me give you a taste of the bidding on work for GM. They do the initial round of getting everybodys price, and then they take the lowest price, and give it to everybody. Then they tell everybody what the low bid is and let everybody rebid. They can do this a couple times. If it's a multi year contract, they demand you reduce what you charge them each year, because you should have gotten better at making the "widget" so they should get money back. They string you out 90-120 days to get paid because they make money holding on to it. I redesigned a project for them 7 years ago, reduced the program cost $750,000.00. They took the redesign, and rebid it, and i didn't get shit. GM treats their suppliers for shit, I own all Fords. |
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I don't know. It would not be as simple as some of y'all think. I would breakdown their P&Ls line by line and start cutting the fat. I would look at suppliers and what could be done to trim the fat there. The real problem would be getting cars to market at a price with enough demand that would make the company viable. It is a BIG, BIG challenge. He asked how you'd fix the perception, not how you'd fix the company. Do you honestly think you can fix the perception without fixing the problems that caused the poor perception? Fix the problems, fix the perception. |
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Get THIS http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/05sh1Va8bX0aY/610x.jpg into production. Use the bailout to ramp up production of the vehicle and the battery units. Sell them for <$30k. The Volt? It's never going to see production, IMO. And if it does, it'll either be so expensive that nobody will want it unless gas hits $5/gallon, or GM will be selling them at a huge loss (which is not exactly a way to MAKE money). Selling at a loss... that's what Toyota did with the Prius. Now I bet they are pretty profitable, if not at least having a good margin. What the Volt would do is change GM's perception (per the OP's question - changing the PERCEPTION of GM), and would likely get them the bailout funds from the .gov, because it goes toward the green/CAFE/energy independence thread. They've already dumped over a BILLION DOLLARS (/dr Evil) into the project, put HUNDREDS of engineers on it... I doubt the Volt will NOT see production. It may be more expensive than we'd all like at first, but I think it will sell. And just like back in the day when desktop PCs were $3000+ items, a little time, and they'll be commonplace. |
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1. Appearance. I would dedicate some effort to making that the bottom of the line carpet, fabric, and vinyl don't have that awful synthetic-dead-mouse-fur ambiance typical of low end GM products. I would like poor people to feel a little less poor every time they got into a GM vehicle.
2. Range. I would ask GM engineers to make the fuel cells as large as possible and I would offer lower-powered engines with an extra gear at the bottom of the range. I would like cheap GM cars to be known for better mileage and huge cruising ranges. 3. Good basic trim levels. At the bottom of the model range, I want people to get a car with all-manual-everything, but with a nice LSD, great traction and stability control, huge brakes, all the guages that they can handle, and cruise control. And if they have AC, the basic, cheapest manual AC should be able to drop the temperature to 50 degrees inside the cabin. 4. Get back to common parts and lower parts prices. I would like to be able to have every GM car and truck roll off the line with only one of (say) two ATF filters (power steering and auto), two of four total fuel filters, one of four total air filters, and so on. Publicise this. Let people know that they will be able to get parts forever. 5. Offer detuned Isuzu diesels in everything it will fit in. If 65% of your trucks and vans have the same engine, costs fall, and if you are able to offer that engine with minimal changes in 180, 280, and 380 bhp, you can fill a lot of needs. If your entry level half-ton can get a nice turbodiesel for $2500 more and get over 30 mpg in mixed driving (seven speed auto, brick-like torque curve), people will probably buy it. How's that for starters? |
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As in addition to my previous 11 steps ( as well as something posters have already talked about):
Decrease the number of brands and model lines. find a few model lines per brand (each focused on a niche within the car market) and focus on those few models rather than this counter-productive internal competition. Using BMW as an example: There were the 3 series, 5 series, 7 series, and Z. Now that BMW has quite a few successful years, they have expanded into X5 and X3, 1 series, and soon a flagship that will compete with the Mercedes CLS. Why the Big 3 thought it would be a great idea to make the same car with different badges on them and then compete for market share with one another (as well as PERCEPTION) I don't know. It seems they went straight into building multiple models of the same shit car and squandered what good reputation they had vs. using their luxury and high quality brands to build perception and provide entry level copies of those cars for more affordable prices. They went at this whole car-building and selling thing backwards for the past how many years?! |
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I would look at suppliers and what could be done to trim the fat there.
There is no fat. Let me give you a taste of the bidding on work for GM. They do the initial round of getting everybodys price, and then they take the lowest price, and give it to everybody. Then they tell everybody what the low bid is and let everybody rebid. They can do this a couple times. If it's a multi year contract, they demand you reduce what you charge them each year, because you should have gotten better at making the "widget" so they should get money back. They string you out 90-120 days to get paid because they make money holding on to it. I redesigned a project for them 7 years ago, reduced the program cost $750,000.00. They took the redesign, and rebid it, and i didn't get shit. GM treats their suppliers for shit, I own all Fords. Amen and Goodnight...but in truth, Ford and all other big "American" manufacturers treat their suppliers like shit. Welcome to the global economy...first felt in New England circa 1988. |
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End the union contracts, that's obvious.
Dump the GM and Pontiac brands and fold them into Chevy. Dump the Buick brand in the US, but keep it in China/Asia. I do like the previous idea of having a separate performance division for the Vette, Camaro, GTO, etc. Sort of like the M division at BMW or SVT at Ford, but this group would also build a few car models in addition to tuning existing models. Fire anyone who works for the Pontiac design division - look how they badly they fucked up the Monaro when rebadging it as the GTO. GM knows how to make good trucks and SUV's, they were selling them like hotcakes before the gas spike. GM doesn't know how to make a good car in the US. Import more of the European brands. Make Cadillac a premium luxury brand. Don't spend so much time worrying about engines and handling, put more emphasis on the interior luxury of the cars. Improve the electronics throughout the brands and kick AC Delco to the curb and stop using their products. Build a rally/AWD car to compete with Subaru and Mitsubishi. Build a couple RWD dragsters/muscle cars. Build turbo'd 4-bangers with indy suspension for the tuner kids to mess with. Profit! 
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I don't know. It would not be as simple as some of y'all think. I would breakdown their P&Ls line by line and start cutting the fat. I would look at suppliers and what could be done to trim the fat there. The real problem would be getting cars to market at a price with enough demand that would make the company viable. It is a BIG, BIG challenge. He asked how you'd fix the perception, not how you'd fix the company. Do you honestly think you can fix the perception without fixing the problems that caused the poor perception? Fix the problems, fix the perception. That was basically my answer. Perception = Reality. Seems simple. |
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End the union contracts, that's obvious. Dump the GM and Pontiac brands and fold them into Chevy. Dump the Buick brand in the US, but keep it in China/Asia. I do like the previous idea of having a separate performance division for the Vette, Camaro, GTO, etc. Sort of like the M division at BMW or SVT at Ford, but this group would also build a few car models in addition to tuning existing models. Fire anyone who works for the Pontiac design division - look how they badly they fucked up the Monaro when rebadging it as the GTO. GM knows how to make good trucks and SUV's, they were selling them like hotcakes before the gas spike. GM doesn't know how to make a good car in the US. Import more of the European brands. Make Cadillac a premium luxury brand. Don't spend so much time worrying about engines and handling, put more emphasis on the interior luxury of the cars. Improve the electronics throughout the brands and kick AC Delco to the curb and stop using their products. Build a rally/AWD car to compete with Subaru and Mitsubishi. Build a couple RWD dragsters/muscle cars. Build turbo'd 4-bangers with indy suspension for the tuner kids to mess with. Profit! I disagree with the bold. Luxury might be nice and all, but performance and handling is where the evaluations will come from and where perception is ultimately built upon. |