Is leadership overrated?

My grief with the big three goes way back to the days of Honda’s first imports.

I agree that American cars have gotten better in the last decade but it is not because they want to make better cars. They do it, begrudgingly, because they have to make better cars. Ban the imports and we will go back to cars that start only 3 times a week. (In warm whether of course…)

As an aside, the Honda was, as I remember, far less scary then the “smart car” of today.

Fortunately, we can all sleep well in our beds knowing that Chrysler has hooked up with Fiat. My memory of Fiat is that they were so poorly built, they simply stopped selling them in the United States. Warms your heart, yes?

Howard

Your points are very well taken, and I too thought the Astec, but I thought we were talking more the last 10-15 years when most GM products were very much improved, and the last 5 when Waggoner made a lot of changes, just not large or fast enough. Did you see where Toyota beat GM
the 1st quarter, in losses -6.9 to 7.7 Billion depending on which report you read.

Your 1st Honda was smaller than the ‘Smart’, aka ‘Stupid’ car, wasn’t it?

Read with great interest your comment on my article entitled “Poor Leadership.”

I too would love to see GM do well but they have a lot they need to change and a lot they need to make the public forget.

Sadly and with few exceptions, the built crap for most of the mid 70’s to probably the mid 90’s. They were fat, arrogant and self important. I for one personally suffered as a result of trying to buy American. I was treated poorly by a company I supported by purchasing their car and they did not care if I lived or died. They believed they could build what they pleased and we would buy it.

I drove a Honda Civic down to Cape Cod the second year it was imported to the US. It was wonderful. Like something I had never experienced before. I remember telling my girlfriend at the time that this car, will change everything. If I can see that, how did Roger Smith miss it. Worse, how does a buffoon such as Roger Smith not see what is happening to his market share as Japan demolishes the American automobile industry?

I genuinely feel bad for the workers and their families who now suffer for the arrogance and utter lack of regard as it relates to leadership that is long gone. On the other hand I remain endlessly fascinated by companies that operated with blind, pompous impunity for decades and then attempt elicit sympathy when the hangover arrives after the part is over.

Henry Ford once said that “any customer can have a car painted in any color as long as it is black.” This statement might seem trite or even cute today but it is indicative of the type of thinking that tainted leaderships decision making for endless decades. The final result is 3 CEO’s who go to DC begging for cash and are not even bright enough to leave the private jets home.

No Mr Ford. We will indeed get the color we desire. You will build it or we will go elsewhere.

They lost market share, and revised the question, asking what kind of car they thought their neighbor would like, which led to the 1955 ‘fin race’, Chrysler’s ‘$100 Mil. look’ and a 3 toned Dodge.

GM builds fine cars and outsold Toyota (also down 40% in sales and asking Japan for a loan) in this country 30%.
The media and Washington hasn’t helped them one bit calling their cars basically ‘crap’ and trashing Waggoner,
Obama calling Buick a ‘toxic asset’ days after it won the best car in the world award (2006 models had an average of 1.22 problems in 3 years, along with Jaguar (!) knocking Lexus out of 1st place after 14 years).

Bias, no. When you can afford anything and prefer a 226k mile Park Avenue that gets a min of 24 mph with a high performance engine you have to defend the team, right?

Imports were slow to big build trucks and SUVs (what Americans wanted) and Waggoner shouldn’t be trashed for adjusting many times, yet a bit slow in an unprecidented drop in demand & hike in fuel costs. GM has consistently beat Toyota & Honda in quality reviews in recent years, sports 3-400 hp Caddies, Corvettes & the (now defunct) GTO that got 27-8 mpg on the road while the Smart Car (aka Stupid car) got only 34, and a death trap (what is the value of human life, anyway).

I vote for GM to make the necessary changes and support their great products in the pipeline.

Lacking courage and allowing managers to hire friends are two of the most common flaws I see. We must be willing to tell the emperor he is wearing no clothes. Thanks for the reminders!

And one more thing, the Aztek drove as bad as it looked!
Ron

Ironically, this is a more important question than what the manager is sometimes thinking:
“Can I trust them with my most critical business needs?”
I want my employee to put the customer and company before me- that is leadership!

Absolutely spot on! You bring up an outstanding point about courage. I’d like to expand that a bit. I think, as recruiting leaders, we need moral courage as well. We need the ability to stand up for what is right or the best for the organization even if it would be unpopular or difficult to do so. Make no mistake, this is never easy. But no one ever said effective leadership was easy. Have the moral courage to do the right thing. “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Ghandi

Thank you for being an inspiration to us all. Your message was worth the read. I’m adopting a new mantra – live courageously! On that theme, tell Sullivan the $1 he was asking for the Aztec was overpriced!

Warm Regards,

Lisa