MARY BARRA AS GM CEO: “YOU’LL BE SWELL! YOU’LL BE GREAT! GONNA HAVE THE WHOLE WORLD ON THE PLATE!”

12/10/13

General Motors (“GM”) announced this morning that Mary Barra, who is currently head of global product development at the General, will succeed Dan Akerson as CEO.

This is terrific news, but not for the reason with which the media have already started to bombard us.   It never ceases to amaze me how those who pride themselves as ardent foes of sexism focus so intently and myopically people’s genders, just as those who pride themselves as ardent foes of racism focus so intently and myopically on people’s races.  But I digress.  Mary Barra is not a great CEO choice because she is a woman; she is a great CEO choice for two primary reasons. 

First, Ms. Barra is GM through and through.  She has worked at the General for 31 years, starting when she was working on her degree in electrical engineering.   Her father worked at Pontiac for 39 years.  Note that the other logical candidate for CEO, GM North America President Mark Reuss, who too would have been an outstanding choice, had a dad who worked at GM.   But while Mr. Reuss’s dad was president of GM, Ms. Barra’s dad was a die maker at Pontiac.  I like that.

Second, Ms. Barra is what we would call a car guy if she were a guy, and I refuse to call her a “car gal,” which I think is more than a tad sexist.  She has been immersed in cars since childhood and has done a great job in product development.   She also has a degree in electrical engineering, which means she knows something beyond the jargon spewing and buck passing that often passes for “management” these days.  

While Dan Akerson did a great job at GM, Alan Mulally has done an even better job at Ford, and both were right for their times, I still suffer from the quaint notion that car companies should be run by car people.  Does leadership by car guys get car companies into trouble on occasion?   Sure, but not always.  And product means something, a great deal, really, especially in the car business.  Without car people in charge, the industry loses something.   But this feeling may arise from my love for the industry and its products, and perhaps a good manager, a real manager, not a malarkey master, can run any type of firm.    What car guy could adequately replace Alan Mulally, should he leave for Microsoft, for instance?

So I, for one, am delighted that Mary Barra will soon be at the helm of General Motors.  Further, I share the sentiment being widely expressed today that Dan Akerson hasn’t received the credit he deserves for his large part in GM’s turnaround.   This lack of recognition has been described as “sad” in the financial media, but “sad” is somehow not the right word.   I am sure that the millions with which Mr. Akerson will leave the General, and the acclaim he will receive over the next few months, will surely serve as sufficient succor.

What is sad, in the proper meaning of the word, is a comment by Mr. Akerson’s predecessor at GM, Ed Whitacre, in the September, 2013 edition of Car & Driver…

“I was chairman at AT&T, then at GM, and I was awful (sic) busy.  I didn’t spend enough time with my kids.  I’m trying to change that now, at least with my grandkids.”

Not getting the acclaim that one deserves for feats in the corporate world is regrettable or unfortunate.   Not being able to spend “enough time” with one’s kids due to the pursuit of those accolades, and desperately trying to change with the next generation what can’t be changed, is genuinely sad.   Thank God for the times He answers your requests with “No.”   But I digress.