More Fritz Henderson

Word is he was fired. Opel and Saab falling through started the rift and GM Europe was Henderson's turnaround project. These failures do not speak well  of his strategic vision and execution.
However, more than Saturn / Saab / Opel, I think it has more to do with a kneejerk reaction to GM posting another billion dollar quarterly loss in the wake Ford’s announcement they finished the previous quarter in the black. This did not look good for the administration. They can claim all they want that this came solely from the board but I’m quite certain it was facilitated by fed’s BSD’s heaping enormous floggings on Whitacre and the board. Fritz was the scapegoat and I can only imagine he didn’t go down without a fight. Oh to be a fly on that wall.

After all, Fritz had been in charge for just 8 months and was lauded as just the man GM needed. Now all of a sudden Whitacre is quoted as saying, “all involved agree that changes need to be made.”

I wish them luck hiring an outsider with all this gov’t oversight and hamstrung compensation capabilities. Of course, the last thing a company in the middle of a traumatic turn
around effort needs is uncertainty at the helm. If they were strategically planning on doing this, they should have had someone selected and ready to take the helm. Certainly not the Chairman of the Board.

Saying all this, what amazes me most is the extent of what they are expecting to do within in a very short period of time within a world wide economic environment that simply presents a multitude of short term general economic obstacles.

Just how realistic are the expectations?

And how much can GM pay to get the kind of talent they need at the helm? Better yet, what CEO worth his or her salt would walk into a deal that they obviously would not control? Things are certainly not going with replacements at AIG and Bank of America!

Yet how many geniuses over the years have claimed all sorts of ideas of how to fix the auto business? All of them with no first hand experience. Alan Mulally has come a long way from when he took over as Ford CEO, but he’s been learning on the job. GM can't afford that.

There may indeed be some chump willing to take the CEO job and be a hero. But how do you identify talent in the auto business anyway?

Fritz getting canned is the last thing GM needs right now!