Bankruptcy

GM?s Corporate Culture and History Reviewed

By J. Michael McBride

In a good, lengthy article, author Alex Taylor of Fortune Magazine reviews the GM corporate culture and the efforts at “fixing” the company which have been made over the last two decades or so.

“After three decades of covering the auto industry, I've learned that Ford (F, Fortune 500) executives tend to be scrappers skilled at bare-knuckle office politics, while the top brass at Chrysler traffic in bravado and charisma. Not at GM. Guys like Wagoner set the tone: smart, sincere, diligent - modern-day Eagle Scouts.

But in working for the largest company in the industry for so long, they became comfortable, insular, self-referential, and too wedded to the status quo - traits that persist even now, when GM is on the precipice. They prefer stability over conflict, continuity over disorder, and GM's way over anybody else's. They believe that hard work will overcome adversity, and that tomorrow will be better than today - despite four decades of evidence to the contrary.”

Mr. Taylor concludes the article with the brief thought that Gm’s chapter 11 might be the best thing for the company, whether it gets the federal bail out or not.

Here is a link to his article:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/21/magazines/fortune/taylor_generalmotors.fortune/index.htm

Michael

Full post as published by Texas Lawyer Blog on November 25, 2008 (boomark / email).