GM's car guys deserve a chance
Print
Reprints
Respond
RSS FeedThe writer is a former senior vice president of marketing and communications at Chrysler.
To the Editor:
Amen! to Peter Brown's Oct. 15 column, "Advice for Akerson: Show a little faith in your bench" (Final Assembly).
Bringing in outside, nonautomotive people is a sure way to demoralize capable and creative existing staff members who have spent their entire careers learning the business. And it's far from being a panacea for anything. But it seems to be standard operating procedure at the not-so-new-anymore General Motors.
Give your veterans and your bright, enthusiastic, up-and-coming superstars who chose to go into the auto industry in the first place a chance to show what they can do. They are the car guys (and gals), the people we used to say had gasoline in their veins. They're at a car company because they chose to be at a car company, because they love the product and the process, because it's in their DNA.
What does GM have to lose by trying some key promotions from within?
The company hasn't exactly hit it out of the park by hiring carpetbaggers.
