I know GM has made a good deal of cuts in their management recently, and I hate to see Americans losing their jobs, but I still have not seen enough. GM still has bloated beauraucracy with too much deadweight. Really cutting the fat at these levels will accomplish two things:
1. Cut cost. I suspect that even with the recent cuts, many people at GM are still performing functions that are either duplicated by others or are in a position that is unecessary altogether. This is the case with many old American companies. At places like IBM, one could expect to remain safely employed for their entire careers. People use to make $80,000 to do one specific job that could either be added to another person's duties or sourced to another corporation. GM needs to once and for all modernize their white collar workforce to resemble the streamlined management at its Japanese competitors.
2. It will give the guys in charge the power to get things done. As I said in another thread, there are simply too many cooks in the GM kitchen. There are too many people in mid-level positions who have the power to significantly change a new vehicle. Because most of these people are in charge of only one small, specific task, they might make a decision that makes perfect sense from their limited perspective while detracting from the overall product. Get rid of some of these people, and let people like Lutz have the final say as to what a product should look like. At this point, I would rather see GM make the wrong decision and go through with it rather than making NO decision and watching the competition blow them away while every little detail gets analyzed by committees.
Most of the old time American companies like GE and IBM have had to do this in order to survive. Its time for GM to do the same.
1. Cut cost. I suspect that even with the recent cuts, many people at GM are still performing functions that are either duplicated by others or are in a position that is unecessary altogether. This is the case with many old American companies. At places like IBM, one could expect to remain safely employed for their entire careers. People use to make $80,000 to do one specific job that could either be added to another person's duties or sourced to another corporation. GM needs to once and for all modernize their white collar workforce to resemble the streamlined management at its Japanese competitors.
2. It will give the guys in charge the power to get things done. As I said in another thread, there are simply too many cooks in the GM kitchen. There are too many people in mid-level positions who have the power to significantly change a new vehicle. Because most of these people are in charge of only one small, specific task, they might make a decision that makes perfect sense from their limited perspective while detracting from the overall product. Get rid of some of these people, and let people like Lutz have the final say as to what a product should look like. At this point, I would rather see GM make the wrong decision and go through with it rather than making NO decision and watching the competition blow them away while every little detail gets analyzed by committees.
Most of the old time American companies like GE and IBM have had to do this in order to survive. Its time for GM to do the same.
