I recently read “Overhaul” by Steven Rattner about the government guided bankruptcy. Lots of interesting inside info on GM and Chrysler.
The author was very critical of the inept GM executive ranks. Frequent responses were “That’s the GM way” and “That’s how we have always done it”. Lots of the attitude “ We are General Motors, we know best”. Reports were almost always late, and sent back multiple times for revisions due to lack of needed information.
Most Excel reports were essentially cut and paste with no ability to change for different scenarios.
Of course there was the sloth like GM decision making processes, and lack of urgency on decision making (if any decision was ever made). I guess some things never change.
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We all know that the survivors are the yes people who s— up. Yet, GM states “speak up”. Anyone who disagrees that everything is wonderful, and unicorns are farting rainbows, is labeled as a troublemaker and gets ostracized.
I saw first hand during the bailout how GM circled the wagons to protect it's middle and upper management. What amazed me was how they could cut so deeply into the engineering ranks yet make only a few token cuts for the middle/upper management. Anyone who has been employed by GM can readily verify how bloated the middle management ranks were. I knew that GM was never going to be a leader of the automotive sector after that. That, in my opinion, was their last chance to make the organization competitive.
Another book with great insights uncovering incompetence of GM leadership is “Detour: My Unexpected, Amazing, Life Changing Journey With OnStar.” OnStar was intentionally separated from the rest of GM and reported directly to the GM CEO to allow it to create technology and not be shot down by GM’s other organizations.