My Plan to Save General Motors
There has to be a plan, because without one GM is a dead-man standing and has no chance whatsoever of surviving in the marketplace.
Generations of executive hubris are to blame. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s the foreign competition. Hubris, saving their corporate asses and not rocking a boat that badly needed new directions are the reasons they’re in such suddenly shallow water and in danger of going aground.
All that’s past history. Now to the plan.
General Motors, over a period of five years, gets totally out of the automobile manufacturing business. Close down, sell off, consolidate assembly lines and leave Detroit for a hugely slimmed-down corporate headquarters in New York.
Keep the brands (Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, Cadillac and GMC) and by all means keep the dealership network in place.
Offshore the manufacturing.
Then watch as the stock recovers and GM nameplates repopulate the American roads.
In order to re-achieve brand differentiation and bring back the buyers who want a C…