For 76 consecutive years GM was the #1 selling vehicle manufacturer in the world. Toyota took the top spot from GM in 2008 with three brands: Toyota, Lexus, and Scion. As the US economy continues to deteriorate through 2009, GM must make significant changes to its product lines to survive. As part of GM’s restructuring plan presented to law makers, GM plans to keep four brands.
GM brands planned to keep:
- Buick – affordable luxury.
- Cadillac – high tech luxury.
- Chevrolet – the performance, price, MPG, and value leader.
- GMC – professional grade Chevrolet models.
We all know that a government bailout of GM, Chrysler, and Ford will not be enough to save anyone. The bailout may delay the inevitable, but as long as we still practice capitalism the market makes the final decision. Up to now, the market has not been pleased with the products produced by US automakers. But all is not lost, GM more so than Ford or Chrysler is positioned to reinvent itself and establish a new era of the automobile.
To reinvent itself GM will need a strong leader, one that can separate the GM of yesterday with the organization it needs to become today. GM will have to start from the ground up and find every bit of efficiency in its manufacturing and supply lines. Manual labor will have to be reserved for the luxury brands, and complete automation of the build process combined with a new production philosophy will need to be applied to everything else.
The new GM will need highly skilled labor to operate its automated assembly lines. The US is a knowledge based economy now; we outsourced commodity manufacturing years ago. We need to change the manufacturing game once again and implement a fully automated manufacturing process.
The formula is simple: QUALITY, PASSION, PERFORMANCE, and VALUE.
If you are familiar with the Corvette, then the above formula should be easy to understand. If GM can find a way to infuse the DNA of the Corvette into every product, they will be on their way back to the top.
What the world wants is more Corvettes.
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