Re: GM to cut 30,000 jobs, close 12 plants

[adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Sandwich Maker)]

" From: farna@xxxxxxx
" 
" Who'd have thought that GM would be the "next AMC". Only Toyota will
" probably buy them out. Back when the Chevette was dropped and the
" Suzuki Sprint replaced it as GMs price leader, and Chevy afficiandos

nb. aficionados

" cried "foul", GM management (I forget who was in charge at the time)
" stated (not an exact quote): "GM is in the business of making money, we
" just happen to do it by making cars. When we can buy cars to sell
" cheaper than we can make them, we will."

it's good to remember that this is true of all publically-traded
companies.  the owners - the stockholders - invest to get profits.
they dont, by and large, care how the company makes profits.

" Hmmm... guess they can't even do that so much now. 

my mother owns a little piece of gm, and she was advised to hold onto
it - they've been very good with the dividends.  they're probably
cannibalizing the corp to do that...

" The US car market is crowded though, and competition is getting stiffer.
" GM would be wise to break off a lot of executives (WITHOUT "bonuses")
" and regroup. Maybe split off the healthier divisions from the central
" authority so the less healthy doesn't drag them under, and cut the fat.
" Saturn back "on its own" like it started would be a good start! But the
" higher ups who can make these decissions are to high up to see through
" the clouds -- that or they aren't worried about anything beyond their
" own pay check and bonuses. They need a good "axe man" over at GM, but
" everyone's afraid for their own necks...

gm is long famous for its management 'ivory tower' isolation.
remember ross perot?  gm acquired him when it bought his co eds.  he
started making pointed comments about mgmt isolation.  their reaction?
give him a large amount of money to shut up and go away.  then there's
roger smith, source of car talk's '50% roi' gag, because when he
retired with a hefty 'golden parachute', gm had half the sales it did
when he became president.

i think gm mgmt is too busy playing office politics to pay attention
to the business.  they are also probably subscribers to the b-school
fallacy that you don't need to know the product to manage the
business.

" On November 21, 2005 Tom Jennings wrote:
" 
" > "... Mr. Wagoner had vowed to announce a plan to bring G.M.'s
" > production capacity in line with its United States sales by 2008." --
" > NY Times, 21 Nov 2005

i heard a followup this am.  seems a lot of the employee cutbacks are
a. phony - they'll simply be moved from 'working' to 'employee pool'
or 'retired'
b. dependent on -future- union agreement, as they are currently
specifically barred from laying those workers off

the 2008 date is apparently when union contracts are next up for
negotiation.

one of the plants they want to close - georgia - makes minivans.  back
in the '90s they decided to invest in suv development, not minivans,
and now toyota and mopar are eating their lunch in this segment.  gm's
reaction?
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                       and think what none thought