by Travis Ristig
Even though General Motors had been experiencing some difficult times during the last few years, including mismanagement with regards to executives, the recent announcement of bankruptcy still sent shock waves through the country. After all, General Motors had been a symbol of American innovation for decades.
At present, the CEO of General Motors is GM Fritz Henderson, having been appointed to the position in March, 2009 after the U.S. president ordered the previous CEO, Rick Wagoner fired from his position. This occurred shortly after General Motors filed for bankruptcy and Wagoner’s unsuccessful attempts and restructuring the company, in spite of having received numerous loans and a bailout. Henderson was unable to reverse the damage which had already been done but as some people point out; this was to a great extent to be expected. In fact, one can only but wonder why Henderson, who as vice president was closely linked to the bankruptcy filing, was chosen to be the new CEO.
Why Did General Motors End Up Going Bankrupt? To a great extent, one can say that “planned obsolescence” played a major role in General Motors losing a substantial amount of money during the past ten years. In an attempt to stimulate the market for new you vehicles, General Motors came up with a concept known as, “planned obsolescence”. Essentially, this was a design concept to insure that a vehicle would only last for a limited amount of time or miles before needing to be replaced. Considering that imported vehicles were known to last beyond 200,000 miles, building a car not to last was by all accounts a poor concept.
Gas mileage was also an issue. GM cars simply did not get great gas mileage. One reason for this was that most GM cars were sports models or they were huge cars along the lines of an SUV. For a time, consumers loved the gas consuming vehicles. However, these solid sales were common during the era of low gasoline costs. When gasoline process skyrocketed, these large cars were not popular sellers. In time, GM simply could not move models.
The bottom line is that when General Motors encountered these problems, together with numerous other problems, the executives, including GM Fritz Henderson and Wagoner, failed miserably. As a result, the company was losing billions of dollars as it headed towards insolvency.
These problems were compounded by various poor managerial decisions. Namely, a joint venture with Nissan and Renault proved disastrous. General Motors also poorly negotiated union contracts it was not able to afford. These problems further drained the company making a turnaround far too difficult.
So, what did Wagoner and GM Fritz Henderson do in order to solve the problems? Unfortunately, that is a question which many people would still like an answer to because essentially, no concrete plan was ever put into place. In fact, the company experienced further losses after a failed attempt to sell their European wing. In a last desperate attempt to avoid the bankruptcy court, General Motors decided to accept a bailout loan from the Federal government. Unfortunately, this plan didn’t work either and General Motors could no longer avoid bankruptcy filing; an event which effectively meant the end of General Motors as we knew it. Perhaps most ironic of all, is the fact that this was also the start of GM Fritz Henderson as CEO.
To a great extent, the end of General Motors was a bittersweet event, considering that the bankruptcy still allows the company to exist, even though it’s a far cry of its former self. Funnily enough, instead of General Motors, it has now been dubbed “Government Motors” instead, thus officially putting an end to any era.
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auto industry, bankruptcy, CEO and Presidents, Economic Recession, GM bankruptcy, GM Fritz Henderson, planned obsolescence