By forcing CEO Rick Wagoner to walk the plank, the Obama administration has just accomplished what GM should have done on its own long ago, says Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter.
On her blog Why Rick Wagoner Had to Go on Harvard Business Publishing, Kanter says GM lived under the false belief that it could keep doing what it had always done, just a little more efficiently.
Wrong. What the automaker really needs is a new vision, a fresh way of looking at the world. That kind of top-to-bottom transformation almost always requires new leadership, Kanter writes:
“Companies finding themselves in a downward spiral need fresh views, not just redoubled efforts to do the same thing while waiting for the recession to end. That is particularly true in this period of economic meltdown, because the downturn will accelerate industry transformations already in progress and require radical reinvention of major institutions and business propositions. When we emerge, some things will never be the same. Turning points will become no-turning-back points.”
GM’s Next CEO
In a stunning, unexpected move, President Obama suggests there is only one person to take over GM: You. What do you do to rebuild this one great brand?
Start with this question: What business am I in? Do I build value cars for people, like Toyota? Do I create driving experiences that customers will pay extra for, such as BMW? Am I the leading innovator of inexpensive green vehicles, the space Honda is now moving into? Maybe it’s big trucks for young bucks. Or do I try and do it all, which arguably was the old GM strategy?
Your move.
‘
