President Barack Obama fired GM CEO Rick Wagoner. He was replaced by Fritz Henderson, who had been Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer. While I agree that Wagoner should probably have been fired, I think his replacement should have been someone from the outside. Promoting from within is a good thing when a company is doing well, but not when the company is collapsing. General Electric, for example, has always promoted new CEO’s from within. But GE was not in trouble when Welch took over, or when he handed the reins to Immelt. IBM was in trouble when the Board brought in Lou Gerstner, an outsider, to, as he put it, teach that elephant to dance. GM is in serious trouble. As an insider, Henderson may be too in step with the corporate culture to change anything. As an outsider I can see what Henderson might miss.
So how would I fix GM?
- Every car, light truck, and truck that comes off the lot should be a diesel electric hybrid. Like the Toyota Prius, and GM could license the technology from Toyota, but it should burn diesel fuel. That would pave the way to bio-diesel.
- Offer a 2 kw solar electric system with every car. This should be priced at $15,000, installed. It’s $10,500 after the economic stimulus plan’s 30% tax break. It would It would charge the batteries, or power a small home during daylight hours.
- Give everyone stock options, and limit salaries to $390,000 – less than the salary of the President of the United States.
- Demand that the government – my new management – take over the burden of health care for all my employees, my retirees, and every other citizen. Medicare works well for my father. It would work well for me!