The insiders take on today's resignation of Fritz Henderson is pretty straightforward; he didn't resign but he was forced out.
Be that as it may (or may not be) GM's Chairman Ed Whitacre will now take on the role of CEO of the nation's largest automaker until a permanent replacement can be found.
Once again the smart money is on long time car biz guy Bob Lutz, (G.M.’s vice chairman) to potentially take over the role of General Motor's CEO.
The New York Times reports,
"It would be a remarkable comeback for an executive who was pretty much
laid out to pasture even before Rick Wagoner was fired by the Obama
administration.
But since then, Mr. Lutz has slowly returned to the limelight. He rejoined G.M. as vice chairman of advertising, marketing and communications, and immediately hit the computer, churning out blog posts on G.M.’s FastLane blog. He said that the Pontiac G8, his baby, would live on under a different brand, then backtracked, then reversed that second decision. This was classic Bob Lutz in his full garrulous grandeur."
So here's the question of the hour; what do all of these executives (Lutz, Whitacre, Henderson, and even Wagoner) have in common?
If you guessed that they are all very rich, old, white, insider, car biz guys, you'd be correct, but that's not the answer that will win you the bonus round.
The bonus round answer is that they all (in one way or another) over saw and headed-up the dramatic decline of the domestic automobile industry. Henderson was with GM for 25-years before today's resignation.
In that time GM went from being the nation's and world's largest car maker to being the nation's largest bankruptcy.
Lutz, in particular, is about as Detroit old school as you can get. Until his recent conversion to the hybrid new testament of cars (think Volt) he was best known for his development of the Dodge Viper and Plymouth Prowler as president of Chrysler…and of course flying his helicopter or Czech jet fighter to work.
In November Chrysler saw just over a 25 percent decrease in car sales. In fact, Chrysler had the worst month out of all of the domestic car makers.
So much for the halo effect of the Dodge Viper and Lutz's long term legacy as the company's CEO.
Isn't it about time that somebody brought in some fresh blood at GM?
Ford rolled the dice and made a plane guy the head of the company.
So far so good?
So GM, how's the very rich, old, white, insider, car biz guy thing working out for you?
We're just wondering?
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