Wagoner to step down from GM immediately

[kaisen]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ihDmcAFFtCO_yZDi-IPKEpLwZb8wD977U5TO1

DETROIT (AP) — A person with knowledge of General Motors' plans says Rick Wagoner will step down immediately as chairman and chief executive of the struggling Detroit automaker.

The person asked not to be identified because Wagoner's plans have not been formally announced.

The move comes on the eve of President Obama unveiling his plan to reinvigorate the U.S. auto industry. Obama and other administration officials have said they would demand deeper restructuring from General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC before they would get any more government loans.

Both companies are living on a total of $17.4 billion in federal aid.

[Neilk]

To make it fair, I hope Gettelfinger of the UAW is shown the door as well.

I am not sure what the answer is with regards to GM. Seems kind of hopeless. I sure wouldn't want a GM product today, not that I ever wanted one.

[Britwrench]

Some might say that it is not soon enough for Mr. Wagoner to leave.
He may have talents, but being a CEO of GM is not one of them, whenever I've seen interviews on the tv, his whole approach is that he is right and everyone else isn't.

[tchanson]

He's not leaving of his own volition. I doubt that he had little choice if they wanted billions more in public aid.

"Wagoner was asked by the administration to step aside, and agreed to leave."

http://freep.com/article/20090329/BUSINESS01/90329035/GM+chief+Wagoner+to+step+down+as+part+of+Obama+aut o+plan




All things considered, its probably best. A deeply ingrained, GM lifer is likely not the best choice to be an effective change agent down at the 'Tubes.









Tim

[ruf-porsche]

That's o.k. because he'll have his golden parachute to comfort his fall. Too bad the rest of the unemployed in this country don't have a golden parachute when they were booted out of their jobs.

[Dottore]

This guy deserves no sympathy.

GM today is his doing.

Next time you rent a Chevy—in Maui or Cabo—ask yourself how you feel about the CEO of the company that produced your ride.

Actually, I would hang the guy from his gonads in some public place in Detroit as an example of the incredible arrogance and stupidity that has brought the country's premier industry to it's knees.

[coollx]

You are either part of the problem, or part of the solution, and Wagoner is part of the problem and needs to go!

[t951]

I cannot understand why Boards of Directors create these amazing Bonuses and Golden Parachutes for execs that are failing.

I am all for rewarding success, but these boys clubs seem to reward the members of their little groups despite the cost and damage.

My theory is simple....

Workers at the bottom get 99% compensation, 1% performance.
Entry manager get 90/10
Middle Managers 80/20
and the ratio changes as the rank rises.

CEO's get 1% compensations (really it should be 0) and 100% PERFORMANCE salary.

Company does well, so does everyone, especially the CEO.
Company does poorly, CEO gets squat and will move along.

People like Waggoner and Gettlefinger are cancer. Slowly killing everything.

[widgeon13]

It's his arrogance that got GM into the situation in the first place, completely out of touch with reality. The Board of Directors should have done this long before the first trip to DC. They were pitching the "too big to fail concept" from the start and he was the ringleader.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by t951

I cannot understand why Boards of Directors create these amazing Bonuses and Golden Parachutes for execs that are failing.

I am all for rewarding success, but these boys clubs seem to reward the members of their little groups despite the cost and damage.

My theory is simple....

Workers at the bottom get 99% compensation, 1% performance.
Entry manager get 90/10
Middle Managers 80/20
and the ratio changes as the rank rises.

CEO's get 1% compensations (really it should be 0) and 100% PERFORMANCE salary.

Company does well, so does everyone, especially the CEO.
Company does poorly, CEO gets squat and will move along.

People like Waggoner and Gettlefinger are cancer. Slowly killing everything.

It kinda works that way now. It's the overpaid athletes that don't work on nothing but performance bonuses.

For some reason I've never liked Mr. Wagoner and I don't know a thing about him. OTOH, I liked Ford Jr. and he got sacked.

[Zeke]

Right after I typed my post I saw on the news that Wagoner is indeed gone. He resigned sometime today.

[widgeon13]

The interesting thing is that he might very well have had a contract but since it's only one person, they will buy him out and he'll be on his way all the richer. Just guessing.

[tchanson]

Originally Posted by Dottore

This guy deserves no sympathy.

Next time you rent a Chevy—in Maui or Cabo—ask yourself how you feel about the CEO of the company that produced your ride.

I have. I rented a new Malibu on business last week and spent several days with it. It was a shockingly competent car, easily in the class of a competing Camry or Accord.






Tim

[kaisen]

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090329/AUTO01/903290337/1148/rss25

Obama said GM Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson would take over the automaker on an interim basis and that no management changes at Chrysler were forthcoming.

[the]

I remember when Wagoner first came on as CEO, every car magazine hailed him as a true, dyed-in-the-wool "car guy" who was going to turn GM around.

I guess not.

To be fair, GM's problems are so institutionalized, with so many "immovable objects" (i.e., things that are set in stone and can't be changed, such as legacy costs), that no one person can save GM.

[dd74]

Interesting - some newscasts are suggesting Obama may have had a personal hand in Wagoner's ousting. That it was more than just an internal decision on GM's part.

Others are calling Wagoner a scapegoat.

Chrysler evidently has to hurry up and finalize a deal with Fiat, or they may also face Obama's ire.

Check out these quotes from an AP story about Wagoner's firing:

But Wagoner is now a high-profile casualty of government intervention, forced out as part of the Obama administration's sweeping last-ditch effort to save the century-old auto giant.

The management shake-up, according to several industry analysts, shows that the administration is serious about forcing GM to change more quickly and dramatically than it did during Wagoner's nearly nine-year tenure as CEO.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20090329/49d051d0_3421_1334520090330-1847018343

So is Obama calling the shots in Detroit, or am I simply misinterpreting what's written here?

[pwd72s]

Doesn't anybody worry about GM now being a government run Company? Nationalization? That's the news that bother me more than the CEO's firing, but that it was done by Obama...not a board of directors.

[dd74]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Doesn't anybody worry about GM now being a government run Company? Nationalization? That's the news that bother me more than the CEO's firing, but that it was done by Obama...not a board of directors.

Or that it happened so secretly. I think the Wagoner decision was made this morning and with little warning.

Socialism?

[Chuck Moreland]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Doesn't anybody worry about GM now being a government run Company? Nationalization? That's the news that bother me more than the CEO's firing, but that it was done by Obama...not a board of directors.

Exactly.

Wagoner is not the issue. It's about the Obama administration overstepping and usurping power belonging to the board of directors.

More amazing is that people seem to accept this.

[dd74]

Listening to Bloomberg right now. Yep, the Euro-folk accept this.

But here's the thing: should we be surprised. After all, didn't the first of the bailouts earlier this year signal that American business on the scale of the Big Three are no longer immune to govt intervention?

Heck, let's go back farther to CAFE standards, as well as safety and smog regulations. Wasn't the govt then intervening in U.S. automakers' business?