With major recent shakeups in the engineering, marketing and design departments, General Motors CEO Dan Akerson — who hates leaked information — seems as if he’s going to break the company’s current form of internal operations like a wild horse. And now reports indicate the internal restructuring will continue, with plans to shift the company into a more global perspective. Perhaps something along the lines of Ford Motor Company’s “One Ford” mantra its been going with since Alan Mullaly became CEO.
This move would in turn eliminate the “fiefdoms” that the GM currently operates under globally with the goal of being a more efficient and globalized automaker. This move will emphasize brands on a global scale, rather than regionally, though it certainly won’t happen over night. And hopefully it doesn’t trigger the company into another round of chaos, though at the same time the move appears necessary in order to turn around afflicted operations such as Europe. Of course, nothing has been made official, yet.
If we’re talking global here, what does that spell for regional brands like GMC, Opel, Vauxhall, Holden or even Buick?
Comments
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. The bad marketing and product decisions of old GM are still having a huge impact, especially with Cadilac Europe/china and Opel… Here the things are moving in right direction but slowly…
I’m not sure that following the path that Ford has taken (One Ford/ One GM) would be feasible for GM. Ford is just a different company with a different history. Ford was able to sell off their other brands. GM’s different brands are ingrained into the corporation and would be extremely damaging to sell off. Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar, etc. were comparatively simpler to separate from Ford than GM’s brands. Put another way, Ford was merely courting the other brands. Holden, Opel, GMC, etc are like extended family. That would be like trying to put teenagers up for adoption.
Brian, what was Pontiac and Saturn, Redheaded step children… Oldsmobile had turned itself around design wise, and then they wacked it… No brand is safe anymore… Unfortunately…
True. And that partially illustrates my point. Look how long and how much agony GM went through to end those brands. It took GM from the 1970’s to 2009 to remove Pontiac from it’s roster. James McDonald tried to reorganize GM from 5 brands to 2 in 1984. That didn’t go well. Buick, Olds and Pontiac were squeezed between the upcontenting of Chevrolet and the top-of-the-line Cadillac. Olds couldn’t reinvent itself enough to have a stand alone image. Pontiac’s performance image was damaged due to many factors. Buick was the only one that could be sold at a greater profit per unit than Chevrolet. It’s presence in China also increases the heartache involved to remove it from the roster. Holden is an Australian mainstay. Trying to replace Holden with a Chevy (or simply GM) would be bloody. Same goes for Vauxall and Opel. Eliminating GMC could be done with the least amount of public outcry, but doesn’t make financial sense to kill off a high-profit brand if you don’t have something to replace it with.
I’m not saying it would be impossible to go “One GM”. But it would absolutely be at a significant cost for a questionable benefit.
At one point I would have agreed with you. These storied brands all have a fiercely loyal following, and clipping them is a huge risk. However, lets take a look at least at Europe.
Opel and Vauxhall are practically on life support in a market that’s more than overly saturated with brands. Brands that stick around for much of the same reason Opel and Vauxhall are still around. They aren’t making money, and haven’t been making money. Then there’s Chevrolet in the mix, plus the European re-launch of Cadillac happening. Simply put, it’s just too much over there.
Hmm… I think I’ve looked at this from the impact of colateral damage and risk avoidance. That’s old GM thinking, and I may have fallen prey to it too. Thanks for pointing out the Chevrolet expansion into Europe and Cadillac’s increasing global launches. That helps me to put things in a more proper perspective. (Yabadabdoo had a good point too that I foolishly glossed over.) I had been thinking short term. Long term, I can almost see where a One GM can work. I guess, I’m just concerned and admittedly ignorant about well Chevrolet and Cadillac will be adopted globally. I could possibly see Cadillac and Chevrolet slowly displacing Buick in China (if that’s even a proposed strategy) although I can’t see that happening anytime soon. But, then again, what do I know. I’m just an Okie. 😉
Time will tell how brand loyalty competes with corporate globalization.