OK, GM, You're Headed for Public Ownership; Now Get Back to Work
The big splash over the General Motors initial public offering is shouldn't obscure GM's urgent "To Do" list, which remains more or less unchanged. The GM IPO may get Uncle Sam out of the GM boardroom, but GM still has a lot of urgent works in progress that the IPO isn't going to address.
The main headings of the GM To Do List, which I named for the sake of alliteration, are: Manufacturing, Marketing, and Morale.
Manufacturing: Roll out the GM global architecture strategy across the board.
GM has rightly taken credit for some of its new models, like the Chevy Malibu, which shares a platform with several similar sized products like the Opel Insignia. The Malibu and related models strike a better balance between sharing costs among global product platforms, and creating distinct models that look and behave differently on the outside.
But there are still an awful lot of new models to go. GM said earlier this year it expects to launch 27 models by 2014, just for the Chevrolet, Opel and Vauxhall brands. Vauxhall is the United Kingdom equivalent of German-based Opel. And where does Opel fit in? Not too long ago, GM came close to selling a controlling share in Opel.
It's also hard to see just where GM's traditional big pickup trucks fit it in, long-term. Pickups are just about exclusively popular in the United States - the exact opposite of a global platform.
Marketing: Define the four remaining GM brands, starting with Chevrolet.
With Hummer, Pontiac, Saab and Saturn gone, that leaves GM with Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC in the United States. Of the four, Chevrolet is the sole remaining volume brand. That leaves the Chevrolet brand with a lot of heavy lifting for the company.
GM is laboring to get its mostly U.S.-oriented brands to catch on in overseas markets. Buick has been a big success in China, but doesn't stand for much of anything in the United States, except it's vaguely "above" Chevrolet and "below" Cadillac. Meanwhile, Cadillac isn't much of a factor, say, in Europe.
Chevrolet sales now make up about 26 percent of GM sales in Europe, the company said. But in the home market, Chevrolet is mostly perceived as the GM entry-level brand. That's uncomfortably close to being the "discounts and rebates" brand.
Morale: Create a new and sustainable GM corporate culture.
Every little department in a big corporation takes its tone from its immediate boss. When those keep changing, it's only human nature for people to want to keep a low profile and ride out the storm. In the meantime, GM's survivors have seen thousands upon thousands of their colleagues let go, both blue-collar and white collar.
Racing from one emergency to another, from the credit crisis to bankruptcy, to restructuring to the IPO, has probably kept everybody too busy and tired to think about it. But if "Old GM" corporate culture is gone, "New GM" corporate culture hasn't been around long enough to sink in from top to bottom. When and if the dust settles from the IPO, maybe that sort of "soft" issue will get some attention.
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Photo: GM