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Hackett, the Change Agent


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3 minutes ago, akirby said:

 They just want to show up at work and get a huge paycheck.

I'm working with one of those right now, and I can't stand that. Draws unwanted attention from management and makes everyone else mad. It's taken him all week to learn 1 job that took the rest of us half an hour to learn, and he's still messing it up. 

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1 hour ago, akirby said:

They squandered that opportunity to really make big changes instead chasing BMW with Cadillac and continuing to build too may similar vehicles and one off projects like Bolt instead of focusing on a core strategy company wide.   This is the same old GM.

GM today is a totally different organization now compared to 10 years ago during the bankruptcy process. They have a fresh product lineup that has won many industry awards. GM is currently focused on electrification, autonomous vehicles, and new generation transportation services. They are already among the leading automakers in each of these areas.

Most importantly, GM's culture has changed completely. Decision making is much faster and aggressive than before. They're not waiting until it's too late to make necessary changes as an organization. For example, GM has been very decisive over the past 5 years exiting regions with limited profitability or growth potential. And in the U.S., they did important things like discontinue unprofitable models, close or idle plants running under capacity, and reduce fleet sales dramatically. And did those things sooner rather than later. 

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24 minutes ago, rperez817 said:

GM today is a totally different organization now compared to 10 years ago during the bankruptcy process. They have a fresh product lineup that has won many industry awards. GM is currently focused on electrification, autonomous vehicles, and new generation transportation services. They are already among the leading automakers in each of these areas.

Most importantly, GM's culture has changed completely. Decision making is much faster and aggressive than before. They're not waiting until it's too late to make necessary changes as an organization. For example, GM has been very decisive over the past 5 years exiting regions with limited profitability or growth potential. And in the U.S., they did important things like discontinue unprofitable models, close or idle plants running under capacity, and reduce fleet sales dramatically. And did those things sooner rather than later. 

You mean things that should have been done during their bankruptcy that they put off until now?

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25 minutes ago, rmc523 said:

You mean things that should have been done during their bankruptcy that they put off until now?

GM actually did those things during their bankruptcy in 2009, and even before. But back then, their decision making speed was too slow. And the scope of some initiatives too limited. GM was already in major crisis mode by the time the actions took effect.

By contrast, GM today is much more proactive in making such changes to their business. Sooner rather than later in other words.

Edited by rperez817
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LOL, GM proactive in closing four plants after years of known they still had way too many plants.

GM pro active in spending billons on Cadillac's dry well of RWD cars and then cheaping out  economizing on its new utilities.

GM shedding huge parts of itself (Opel Vauxhall) and decimating Holden instead of facing its demons and curing problems.

Jim Hackett's level of thinking requires executives to do much more than finding easy answers like amputating large parts of the company, there was  thought of closing down Ford Europe but he asked them to find another way. Ford still values European sales and  the global markets dependent on those products....that's the real difference here.

 

Edited by jpd80
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5 hours ago, rperez817 said:

GM today is a totally different organization now compared to 10 years ago during the bankruptcy process. They have a fresh product lineup that has won many industry awards. GM is currently focused on electrification, autonomous vehicles, and new generation transportation services. They are already among the leading automakers in each of these areas.

Most importantly, GM's culture has changed completely. Decision making is much faster and aggressive than before. They're not waiting until it's too late to make necessary changes as an organization. For example, GM has been very decisive over the past 5 years exiting regions with limited profitability or growth potential. And in the U.S., they did important things like discontinue unprofitable models, close or idle plants running under capacity, and reduce fleet sales dramatically. And did those things sooner rather than later. 

You must be right, after all, I have seen the commercial with all of these "actual owners" showing that they "switched" to Chevrolet!  :stirpot:

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54 minutes ago, danglin said:

You must be right, after all, I have seen the commercial with all of these "actual owners" showing that they "switched" to Chevrolet!  :stirpot:

Those commercials are something, aren't they? :stirpot:

Anyway, it doesn't matter whether I'm right. The new GM is doing a good job not only attracting new retail customers, but retaining existing ones. GM had the highest overall customer loyalty of any auto manufacturer in the U.S. every year for the past 4 years. https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2019/jan/0115-ihs.html

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2 hours ago, rperez817 said:

Those commercials are something, aren't they? :stirpot:

Anyway, it doesn't matter whether I'm right. The new GM is doing a good job not only attracting new retail customers, but retaining existing ones. GM had the highest overall customer loyalty of any auto manufacturer in the U.S. every year for the past 4 years. https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2019/jan/0115-ihs.html

Good for them! You might want to post that at the GM Forum!  :mademyday:

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On 4/5/2019 at 9:48 AM, akirby said:

Did you not read the article?  If not for Hackett we'd have a less than stellar Mach E.  He's the one who told them to start over from scratch.  More importantly he got them to do it in record time.  So apparently they DO need Hackett to tell them how to design good vehicles.

Or more accurately - he's enabling them to build great vehicles.  And that does come from the CEO. 

This could be Hackett's biggest contribution to Ford. Going on an all out attack of the old culture at Ford that resulted in lots of uncompetitive products.

Mary Barra had to deal with the same kind of 'crappy car' culture at the old GM. She turned that around when she became head of product development and later CEO. https://money.cnn.com/2013/12/10/autos/mary-barra-gm-crappy-car/index.html

Both Hackett and Barra are doing the things their predecessors didn't to make their companies "fit". This is critical as the global automotive industry in the next 5 to 10 years will undergo a total transformation.

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On 4/6/2019 at 1:18 AM, fordmantpw said:

Agreed!  I've never understood people who complain incessantly about their job.  If it's that bad, then leave.  If you can't find something comparable, then it must not be that bad, so quitcher bitchin.

 What was it Homer Simpson said,

If you don't like your job, you don't strike! You just go in every day, and do it really half assed. That's the American way. - Homer Simpson

Anyone who has ever looked over a right hand drive Mustang would agree about USA half assed engineering, minimum effort.

Edited by jpd80
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On ‎4‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 4:44 PM, jpd80 said:

 

Jim Hackett's level of thinking requires executives to do much more than finding easy answers like amputating large parts of the company, there was  thought of closing down Ford Europe but he asked them to find another way. Ford still values European sales and  the global markets dependent on those products....that's the real difference here.

 

Reading this makes me happy on a Monday morning. I was concerned that Ford was going to jettison its European operations.

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9 hours ago, grbeck said:

Reading this makes me happy on a Monday morning. I was concerned that Ford was going to jettison its European operations.

Yeah, they are changing emphasis from selling MPVs to more utilities and improving their cars as well, Mondeo gets the 8-speed auto that Fusion misses out on (a clue?)

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36 minutes ago, jpd80 said:

Yeah, they are changing emphasis from selling MPVs to more utilities and improving their cars as well, Mondeo gets the 8-speed auto that Fusion misses out on (a clue?)

GM is just to dam slow to react to market changes/forces and ford is not much better....where ford has made inroads is understanding 69% of current NA sales are light trucks or in the "light truck family"...GM was done the day they aligned themselves with the green agenda and the gubment....no f's given what happens to them

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