When Mary Barra took the reigns at GM in January 2014 it was clear she’d have to contend with a vast workload: rejuvenating corporate culture, overhauling a slew of mid-grade product offerings and regaining consumer confidence were just the tip of the iceberg. Then the GM recall hit just three weeks after she took her post as CEO. And that sure didn’t help.
Now, after a year in the hot seat, the spotlight has begun to fade on the recall crisis which is said to contribute to the deaths of over 120 people, and Barra can better install her plan to shift GM from survivor to marketplace leader.
“We used to be a company of best efforts and there was a ‘dog at my homework excuse’ for not showing results,” said the CEO in an interview with Bloomberg. “I’m working hard to drive a can-do entrepreneurial spirit.”
While opinions of Barra remain mixed, she’s already committed to several ambitious plans like rebuilding the Cadillac dynasty and rejuvenating the long-struggling Opel brand with a slew of new products. Both goals will take years to fully realize.
It hasn’t been easy so far. Investors skeptical about GM’s corporate shift have pushed GM stock down 27 percent since the CEO took her post, even though she made it clear GM would now focus on chasing profits rather than sales like old GM.
Though profits in North America doubled to $5-billion this year, the slowdown in China has investors worried about GM’s plans in the softer playing field. The company’s current U.S. market share remains on par with last year’s at 17.7 percent.
“She’s in a no-win job,” Morningstar Inc. analyst Dave Whiston told the news outlet. “She’s CEO of a company people love to hate, but I still have it in our list of best investment ideas.”
Comments
Sorry, even tho I am a GM fan, GM never (fixed) the switch problem that killed people. All they did was give you a new set of keys with a round hole to keep the keys from bunching up. The week spring that was changed over without using a new part #, to cover up the problem, was not installed in the fix. I know, my young son has inherited the 04 Malibu Classic with the recall from me. What a sick fix, this needs to hit the media so we can get the new switch installed, at a much greater cost of course to GM. If anything happens, I assure people who know the truth about this (fix) will sue again !
My wife owns a 2005 Saturn Ion. We received the recall notice in the mail, and had the new, improved ignition switch installed. It performs flawlessly. The previous one was quite notchy, and several times we could not remove the key from the ignition unless we wiggled the key back and forth a couple of times.
I was actually quite pleased and surprised at how fast our dealer acquired the new part, and had it installed.
You sir win father of the year.
The truth is the ignition is completely new post recall. It has a stronger spring and it not prone to shutting off with any wear or weight.
The Hole in the key is there to make it possible to identify the ignition was repaired with a new unit.
I too am an owner of the new replaced part and I also am fully aware of the new part and the changes that were made.
Either you have no clue or are a troll that does not even own the said model.
This part is well documented and well know to all involved. Trust me if they had messed this one up the media would have already outed it.
“As ‘Switchgate’ Resolves, CEO Mary Barra Able To Turn Focus to Opel and Dieselgate in Europe” …
There, I fixed the title of the article. Stay tuned.
A can do Entrepreneurial spirit….man did she hit the button , though the big problem , in my opinion , will be having that vibrant spirit filitered through so many layers of tenured bloated management . She put it out there , but has she the unrestricted freedom to open the channels of this bureaucracy so the spirit can flow through ??
She opened up things much the way Lutz started by empowering the people on lower levels to do what they can and not wait to be told to do what they thought was right.
They also have killed sections that were pointless and double managing. There is still more work to do but you can see the results already on how they are doing things.
The best example is the moving of the people from GM Performance Division. While they did excellent work on the special performance models they were moved to fix the suspension on the cars from the start not fix them after production. They are the reason not just the high end models but also the entry models are world class in ride and handling now.
Now….HOW ABOUT BRINGING BACK PONTIAC ? ? ?