The New GM: New Directives With Old Middle Management Ways

 

This article is part of the GM Authority Opinion Desk series, where you can see exactly what’s on the minds of the GM Authority crew.

 

It seems that only yesterday GM claimed bankruptcy and re-emerged as “The New GM”. Two years later, is the New GM’s marketing approach any different than that of the old GM?

Consisting of a healthy mix of insiders with international experience as well as outsiders from other automakers and non-auto industries (such as tech firms), it’s safe to say that GM’s senior management has turned a new leaf. GM’s board has also become an eclectic mix of individuals with diverse backgrounds. All this is to say that I believe GM has the proper “directive” moving forward. I’ve read just about everything that has come out of the RenCen and there is very little rhetoric that I do not agree with.

Between A Rock And A Hard Place Lies…

But underneath “Mahogany Row” lies what is known as middle management. These are the folks who have the mandate to carry out the directives set out by senior management while ensuring that employees develop in such a way that they can contribute to the organization in a more meaningful way. Middle management positions are probably the most challenging in one’s career, requiring the execution of direction while putting out fires that senior management find petty (yet employees find significant). Directors need to have a strategic outlook while, at the same time, being tactical… good luck with that.

Managing Change

So how does a Director go about ensuring that his/her team successfully executes a mandate while growing individuals? It really comes down to the Director’s ability to manage change. Managing change is so much more than introducing a new process, strategy or technology (all of which GM has been doing over the past few years). It’s also about constantly introducing new team members to existing ones. This is known in the corporate world as “cross-pollinating” — one of the essential elements to nurturing innovation. Simply put, the same people doing the same jobs will net you the same results. It is simply a non-starter to assume that someone can change their thought process in a substantial fashion just because a company has re-branded itself.

For instance, let’s take a look at GMNA’s marketing division: individuals change positions either when a new product is launched or when someone leaves the company. This approach is no different from that of the Old GM: instead of moving a Marketing Manager to a different product line after three or four years (optimum in my opinion), General Motors continues its old ways of “keeping a seat warm.” For example, moving the Impala Marketing Manager to the Camaro brand would actually benefit not only the individual (in being introduced to a new team, approach and customer), but it would also benefit the organization as a whole due to the individual employee gaining a broader perspective on the subject of marketing in general. Unfortunately, GM currently moves marketing positions only when someone leaves.

And while many tend to think of marketing as advertising, today’s marketing discipline also encompasses product planning, pricing, content, deployment, and resolution management (just to name a few). And since advertising for car companies today are now handled by outside agencies like Campbell-Ewald and The Omnicom Group, marketing teams can now place increased focus on the product itself.

Engineers As Marketers

One initiative that I appreciate, however, is the amount of engineers found on the Volt marketing team. For starters, this provides a more detailed quality of product communication for the customer. What’s more, engineers in general tend to not be spin doctors — a set of skills that organizations have cherished at a time when the internet did not exist and customers could only attain information from the firm itself.

As such, moving engineers into the marketing field of a company sets up a well-rounded resource that provides both mathematical and artistic experience. In addition, bringing in resources from the competition or even companies outside the automotive sector such as Apple, Microsoft or Cisco (to name a few) will further stimulate innovative marketing initiatives thanks to cross pollination.

Cross Pollination A Must When It Comes To Middle Management

In the same way that GM has rebuilt its senior management team through cross pollination, it must do the same with the marketing and sales teams as well. Failure to do so on a more frequent basis will only result in the same old GM marketing doing the same old things in a rapidly changing environment in which Volkswagen, Ford, Kia, and Hyundai are growing market share at an astonishing rate.

At the end of the day, cross pollination must occur on a more rapid basis if General Motors truly wants to create its leaders of tomorrow while being the leading automaker it set out to be after bankruptcy proceedings.

Posted via email from Hylton Jorssen's posterous

The #Chevrolet #Volt: Society's Paradigm Shift?

 

 

Many of our younger readers don't quite realize how far the automotive industry has come with respect to the design of electric vehicles. Since the 70's, we've seen all sorts of EV's - some looking like small wedged cube with lawnmower wheels to something trying to resemble a bug-eyed tadpole. An EV's attractiveness and practicality from the consumer's standpoint always took a backseat to wind tunnel results and vehicle size/weight. Volt engineers and designers went through considerable effort to deliver an electric vehicle which still maintaining the look of a gasoline vehicle. Friction resistant tires, clever aerodynamic body lines and innovative technology all work together to allow the owner a zero compromising experience.

Is the Volt pricey when looking at the product from a budgetary standpoint? It is - after 8 years of ownership, you would have more money in your pocket if you bought a cruze ltz  vs. the volt. But this is where we as a society really needs to think about the long term impact which such a decision will have on our future. I simply bring up flat screen TV's as an example of what happens to an industry when society accepts new technologies. 10 years ago, many 42 inch flatscreen televisions were selling for well over 5K. Today you can buy them with better quality for well under 20% of the price 5 years ago. Had we not purchased those expensive flatscreens (compared to the Cathode Ray Tubes which were far cheaper at the time) we would all most likely still be watching (CRT) televisions. The popularity brought the cost of the new technology down while at the same time, allowed the manufacturers of flatscreens to advance in the areas of liquid crystal display, plasma, digital light processing and the latest kid on the block - organic light emitting diode. The quicker we accept the technology, the cheaper and better it gets. Pick an industry and this rule will always be proven.

Our decision to buy or reject the Volt, will have the same impact on the advancement of alternative energy. Should the Volt succeed, it will not only advance innovation in the auto industry, it will also trigger other industries to follow suit. The faster the volts success, the faster society benefits from technological advancement. Companies which develop motorcycles, yard maintenace tools for landscapers or machinery for constructrion companies will be forced (through competitive and market forces) to develop non internal combustion engine (ICE) products. Those companies which decide to ignore the market shift, will eventually meet the same fate as The Smith-Corona Typewriter Company when it ignored the acceptance of the personal computer with the consumer and the business world.

The real question is - are we perceptive enough as a society to understand how much influence we have on our future standard of living by buying the volt? Do we understand that we have the power to rapidly change our energy needs including our dependence on foreign oil? Do we understand how the positive change we can have on the environment 10 years from now? Perhaps we are still a few years out before people see the impact vehicles such as the Chevrolet Volt will have but change must start somewhere and it's great to see General Motors at the forefront of innovation once again.

 

Posted via email from Hylton Jorssen's posterous

GM's Chris Preuss: Flying under the radar at Mach Z...........

This article is part of the GM Authority Opinion Desk series, where you can see exactly what’s on the minds of the GM Authority crew.

Those who “think” they know me often state that I am extremely opinionated. Well, opinionated I am — and I wish more Americans spoke their minds. I pride myself on being very honest in my opinions since we live in a world where the “no spin zone” is nothing but. And while I typically don’t like to write about the performance of GM’s senior management, today I am going to bend my own rules to discuss the performance of OnStar President, Chris Preuss. 

Most senior managers of large corporations have a difficult decision at hand when filling key positions. It’s difficult for a number of reasons but one of them is trying to find a candidate who not only fully understands the direction in which the corporation wishes to grow but who also brings to the table a unique perspective that can be used to take the initiatives that have been started and move them forward. To that point, Mark Reuss (pronounced Royce) has done a wonderful job in selecting Chris Preuss (pronounced Pruce) as OnStar President.

Expansion By Leaps & Bounds

In the short time that Preuss has taken over the reigns at OnStar, he has taken the technology used to support the telematics firm’s safety features and expanded it by leaps and bounds to include features that provide increased convenience to the public. For example, check out the videos at the end of this article. These OnStar videos give viewers a great understanding about the ways in which information and functionality can be enhanced between you — the driver — and your car. In addition, future OnStar features will allow users to send and receive email, Facebook, Twitter and text messages — which, although controversial, is a welcome feature. Personally, I would gladly buy GM’s heads up display option (HUD) if I could use it to flash one-line text instead of using it to see my car’s speed or engine RPM, as the feature currently provides. At the end of the day, I am way too busy as it is — getting information as quickly as possible is vital to me and my business interests.

You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet…

Other new OnStar developments include offering the service to non-GM customers as well as owners of GM vehicles whose cars have not left the factory as OnStar “ready”. This will undoubtedly not only increase the revenue stream for OnStar but also widen its R&D spend due to playing in a new market segment. The result of OnStar’s business development in such a short period of time has turned the service from a safety feature completely dependent on current General Motors customers to a safety and communications product available to the automotive market at large. I could go on and on here in what this positive direction means for the corporation, but it’s safe to say “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet”.

Social Is The (New) Reality

Chris has a long history in communication: in fact, before taking the reigns at OnStar, he was General Motors Vice President of Global Communications. In that role, he was largely responsible for getting General Motors out of the dark ages of communication and into social media — the reality of today’s communication between consumers. Believe me when I say that was no easy task. It’s quite common to see some of GM’s key product personnel taking to the “net” through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and 100′s of enthusiast sites and forums. The reality of global communications today and — in particular the Internet — is that people are rapidly moving in the direction of non verbal communication. Their preference for this type of communication is based on factors such as cost, speed, convenience, the ability to interact anonymously, as well as the general love of knowledge and the ability to reference old communication that a traditional phone call simply can’t provide (Google Voice aside, of course).

The Internet has forced businesses to rethink how the consumer interacts with one another as well as how information is disseminated, often at viral speeds. Internet forums have now replaced “Town Hall Meetings” and web messaging and blogs allow one person to instantly communicate with as big an audience as desired. As such, it’s clear that Chris Preuss saw the future and proceeded to perfectly deliver on GM communication strategy, leaving those that followed him a wonderful canvas to work from.

The one common thread in both these positions is communication — and to that point — Chris has that experience in spades. What impresses me most about him, however, is not his strength in communications but — more importantly — his ability to take what is given to him (successful but dated) and turn it into a major industry game change. This kind of behavior is rare in an executive. Often, executives play the “safe card” or manage the initiatives set by their predecissors. Preuss’ success has proven that he is willing to not only take risk, but be open to new ideas brought to him by the good GM people that you never hear about such as Mary Henige and Nick Festa.

General Motors will do well with executives such as Chris, who turn water into wine.

Posted via email from Hylton Jorssen's posterous