Automotive Business & Industry, Automotive Industry - History, Automotive Industries
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Overview
Nearing financial ruin and frustrated by the inability of a tradition-bound CEO to see the warning signs, in 1992 the General Motors board of directors took drastic action. In a daring coup that shook the auto industry, the board seized control of the world's largest carmaker from chief executive Robert Stempel and handed it to an unassuming New Englander named Jack Smith. The world was shocked: It was general knowledge that GM was sick, but no one had any idea just how close to broke the company was. Facing the daunting task of rebuilding the company virtually from the ground up, Smith and his team of strategic planners and executives launched a program they called Fundamental Change, hoping to stop the bleeding that had almost killed the automotive giant. Under Smith, GM has returned to fiscal health, but at tremendous cost. Jobs had to be slashed, plants closed, and slow-selling cars and trucks scrapped. Despite the promising ideas in Fundamental Change, thousands of employees now wonder what Smith plans to do next. Bypassing GM's formidable public relations department and talking instead with company insiders from the boardroom to the factory floor, noted business journalist Micheline Maynard uncovers the truth behind the latest crisis at GM.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Until the late 1970s, GM's dominance of the American auto market was unquestioned. The company was not only the biggest car manufacturer in the world, it was America's largest industrial corporation. But GM's slowness in adapting to changing market forces, brought about in large measure by the oil shocks of the '70s, resulted in large losses for the company. Concerned by the inability of top management to reverse GM's declining fortunes, in 1992 the GM board engineered a coup that replaced CEO Robert Stemple with vice chairman Jack Smith. With access to most of the major players in the drama, Maynard, Detroit bureau chief of USA Today, provides a well-documented account of how GM executives sought to deal with the company's problems and how internal politics and traditions often intruded on proposed solutions. And while she gives Smith high marks for the changes he has initiated, Maynard stresses that the turnaround for GM is far from complete. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)Booknews
A look into General Motors politics and economics focusing on Jack Smith whose controversial "fundamental change" strategies turned the company around as bankruptcy loomed on the horizon. Maynard (USA Today Detroit Bureau Chief) interviews the key players, including Roger Smith, Robert Stempel, and other GM employees to chart the roller coaster movement of GM, and anticipates its future leaders and what changes wait in the wings if the company intends to survive. Includes photographs. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Book Details
Published
July 1, 1996
Publisher
Birch Lane Press
Pages
320
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9781559723138