Why now? GM wants help General Motors’ top man is leaving now in part because the White House made strong hints that they wanted new leadership if the automaker wanted more bailout money. Wagoner has been with the company for over three decades and has been CEO for almost a decade. There’s no word yet as to who the new CEO’s going to be, but we’ll probably learn more later this week. source
Why now? GM wants help General Motors’ top man is leaving now in part because the White House made strong hints that they wanted new leadership if the automaker wanted more bailout money. Wagoner has been with the company for over three decades and has been CEO for almost a decade. There’s no word yet as to who the new CEO’s going to be, but we’ll probably learn more later this week.
A cruddy legacy Wagoner has led GM through some of the more questionable periods of the company’s history – between the fumbled response to Japanese carmakers, the legacy payments to union employees, the over-leaning on SUV’s to save the company’s fortunes and the utter lack of creativity in the company’s vehicles, it’s kind of tough to say what was the one thing that made GM fall so far. source
We feel we’ve weathered one hell of a storm, and we’re cautiously optimistic as we move into ’09 that we can stabilize and grow again.
Mike DiGiovanni • General Motors sales analyst, on sales prospects for 2009. GM recently lost the title of top automaker to Toyota, although, considering the economy and bailout-tinged circumstances, neither are all that excited about that. • source