Thank god Rick Wagoner is gone. Obama did the right thing!!!

[OregonBlue]

Remember Wagoner is the one who thought GM needed another corporate jet because his wife was without one when he was jetting around to meetings. Remember he is the one that thought the new CAMERO was going to save GM. He really believes that Americans want their muscle cars and that in the long run that will save GM.

Read this great article in Forbes!!

Why Rick Wagoner Had To Go
Jerry Flint, 03.30.09, 12:10 PM EDT
The ouster of GM's chief executive was long overdue. But will his successor be any better?

The fall of General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner was unavoidable. There is no way President Obama could hand out more billions to a management with a practically unblemished record of failure.

Yes, it's certainly good news; the Wagoner management was never going to turn around General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ). Never. After all, Wagoner has been chief executive since 2000 and head of North American auto operations six more years before that. His predecessor and mentor, Jack Smith, became chief in 1992. GM lost market share in the U.S. in all but a couple of those years. The losses in Wagoner's last four years topped $80 billion.

Worse, GM seemed adrift in this crisis. Its European operations--and they are key to saving GM--seem to be without serious direction. In the U.S. we hear mostly of program cancellations, and the Vice Chairman Robert Lutz, the only real "car guy" in top management, is giving up and retiring at the end of the year.

But it might be a mistake to cheer Wagoner's leaving, because we don't know if his replacement will be any better. The second in command, the president and chief operating officer, is Fritz Henderson, and he is expected to succeed Wagoner, at least for now. Frankly, it is difficult to see what he did to become president of the once largest automaker in the world. Like Wagoner, he is a fairly colorless financial officer. But it's unfair to knock him before he's had a chance to do something.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/30/rick-wagoner-gm-jerry-flint-business-autos-backseat-driver.html

[On the Road]

1. Leadership is Important

Companies tend to imitate their CEOs. "The shadow of the leader" is a powerful effect.

While I have nothing personal against Wagoner, he is the wrong person to lead GM right now. They need their own Lee Iacocca.

[OregonBlue]

2. Yes, that is exactly what the Forbes article says. They try to make Wagoner out to be a good guy

which I doubt seriously. He is another of those that believe he is "entitled" to his perks and that the rest of us do not get it but basically, they say he is not a car guy, just another entitled CEO who needed to go.

[Oregone]

3. If the government wants to pretend its on the board of directors, buy the fucking company already

Handing them free cash with no equity stake and pretending to call the shots for PR reasons doesn't accomplish a whole lot on its own. This is essentially just a big PR move on many fronts.

[orwell]

4. Wa"goner" is a goner...

...and good riddance. He should have been shown the door years ago. Lutz is no better. Lutz, the "car guy" is behind the hideous Man-o-War styling and muscle car push of high horsepower of the newer GM cars. Lutz the putz needs to go as well.

If you want to see the difference a competent CEO can make look at Ford - given up for dead until Mulally took the helm. He inherited a horrible situation and is in the midst of turning it around. Ford quality is up as well as their forward looking fuel economy efforts. They are trying to bring cars to market that the world wants, not some testosterone fueled fantasy of the 60's embraced by a bunch of clowns who still want to drag race for pink slips.

Wagoner and Lutz = Epic Fail.