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Old 06-24-2008, 11:27 AM   #35 (permalink)
LAMRONH
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Re: GM Hires Citibank to help conduct HUMMER strategic review

Quote:
Originally Posted by mgescuro View Post
Any MBA can see the situation clearly and determine the necessary steps here.
Do a proper market sizing of HUMMER's core market. Not just "SUV's," but fully off-road capable SUV's. Also, don't take into account the NA market, but the worldwide market.

If the market is sufficient enough to support a niche product like HUMMER, then determine the proper product mix for HUMMER to make it successful.

The problem is, there is absolutely nothing wrong with HUMMER!!!!!
The issue is the fact that GM is missing the target market, and HUMMER has been slow to get product to market. (Still waiting for the H3T... tick tock...).

GM remains cluess on how to manage a niche brand.

By leveraging HUMMER's strengths in off-roading, plus the rugged image it holds, there's no reason why GM couldn't hold onto HUMMER as a niche brand. In fact, GM can easily penetrate markets that are dominated by Land Rover in global markets.

But what GM see is "Big SUV" and "gas guzzling."
They don't see the forest from the trees.
MBAs are why GM is teetering on the brink of disaster. They are what got the slide started in the 1960s because it was more important to save 100 bucks than add a few critical items to cars to ensure their safety and competitiveness. GM continues to court a crash because the executive ranks are impregnated with MBAs.

The smartest thing the corporation could do is purge about 75 percent of the MBA ranks at the top ten levels of their top-heavy bureaucracy.
Unfortunately that is about as likely to occur as con-gress agreeing on a mass resignation, with the guarantee that their state governors would replace them with people who understood their job description, were not for sale, and whose first loyalty is to the citizens of the nation.
Dream on.

If GM doesn't yet have the auditing and strategic talent aboard to plan and run the company, they might as well give up the ghost now and avoid further bloodshed. Hiring yet another outside consultant at Lord knows how many tens of million$, is merely delaying the inevitable.

Better put that money to use internally by pensioning off the legions of incompetent managers and poobahs before they can do further damage to a brand that it would take an idiot to sell or destroy.
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