GM Is Not America: GM Didn't Change With The Times

[Guest Josh]

Industry: The world changed. The world's largest (for now) automaker didn't. The good news is that most U.S. businesses haven't made the same mistake.

Barring some miracle — such as a car that really clicks with consumers — General Motors Corp. is facing a future with no pleasant options. The least painful would be drastic downsizing, which means axing whole divisions like Pontiac and Buick, not just closing a few plants as it announced this week. It also might go into Chapter 11 or sell itself off in pieces, if anyone will buy.

This is a woeful tale indeed, but it also comes with a sense of inevitability. No one has any reason to be surprised.

GM's management and unions have been denying reality not only for the last couple of years but for the last couple of decades. It's almost as if they were the only ones who didn't see disaster coming.

That may be why we aren't hearing an outcry, at least to this point, for a bailout or some other government intervention to save a company that once symbolized, and heavily influenced, the whole U.S. manufacturing economy.

Full Story: http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArti...&issue=20051122

[balthazar]

Dear God- where has this 'journalist' been the last 10 years?? Woefully out of touch and inaccurate merely from the above quoted.

[sciguy_0504]

Thought I completely disagree with most of what he has to say, he does have a point. GM failed to quickly change with the times and that is due to the unions, poor management and the fact that it's a huge company. I know the Titanic comparison is cliche but it fits: Unions = Titanic employees who didn't fill lifeboats completely Poor management = Titanic designers who failed to make the rudder large enough and the water-tight doors tall enough Huge company = huge ship

[I hope GMRULES again]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

Another cute, anti-Detroit, "hey foreign makers build here too-don't dare buy GM" article

[balthazar]

>>Huge company = huge ship<<

This is the only one of the 3 that really fits.

[daves87rs]

Were they slow to change? Yes. But anything is possible..Companies can do some interesting things... Heck, if K-mart can keep going, even with all the odds against it, I think GM still has a good chance...