World's First Post-GM-Bankruptcy Post

I want to be the first person in the world to write the "What went wrong" article about GM because they are going to go bankrupt.

So what went wrong?

Well for one, GM's timing to come looking for a handout bailout was horrible. Right when the populace is tired of hearing about who is getting taxpayer dollars, and the government is locked in we're-Republicans-we-hate-democrats-shutup-i-can't-hear-you-NO-LALALALALA mode and nobody really wants to work together, GM showed up with hands outstretched.

Then there was the private jet debacle. The fact that they did it isn't a big deal. Several banks are still getting their bailout money even though their leadership is playing golf in the Hamptons. The problem is GM has no PR guy who can spin this into a victory. In fact, the robust ineptitude of GM's advertising and public relations wing is an underline to the following: We don't get it.

GM put out crappy cars for years, and years. It got to the point where my generation has zero brand loyalty. Say what you want about their cars making gains in the last 5 years, it does not matter. GM picked up a "big honking piece of junk" stigma and could not shake it.

Boy, SUV's seemed like a cash cow, but when the market turned, it was like GM was a deer caught in the HID headlights, completely unresponsive to market trends.

I could (and someone will) write a novel about how the union killed GM. This is partially true. But it's been shown recently that union workers at GM didn't really have it that much better than workers at Toyota. The major difference is the honey the retirees from GM were eating while Toyota has almost zero retired workers. However this fact didn't receive a whole lot of press, which just goes back to the collossal failure of GM's PR department.

So what went wrong? I think the bottom line is that GM looked like a wounded giant for the last ten years. Just as we all watch the government helplessly founder over Social Security, we watched GM stumble around like a drunk trying to find the privy. I never felt that "GM is back" or that "GM makes a bold move". I never saw a corporate strategy that said "We're putting all our chips in on this" or "we acknowledge the times they are a'changin' ". These activities could very well have happened, but GM consistently produced ugly vehicles, sang its swan song, argued with its unions, and complained to (and exorbitantly bribed and lobbied) Congress that it was helpless against the forces of economic nature.

Surely, surely there were competent people at GM who understood the changes that needed to be made. They just didn't work in the PR department.


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