Inevitable.
Gentlemen,
Three things really stand out when I look back at my two decade long experience as a General Motors dealer. I spent a summer attending the General Motors Institute in Flint, Michigan after I graduated from college in 1978. We visited two GM assembly plants where I was stunned by the disdain most of the UAW workers appeared to have for both their job and General Motors. A couple years later when my dealership was being crippled by a fairly lengthy UAW strike over what I considered to be some outrageous and and unrealistic Union demands, I told my factory representative that General Motors needed stand firm as their labor costs were already out of line with their Japanese competitors. Even though that strike was crushing me financially at the time, I thought I would be better off in the long run as a GM dealer to see General Motors break the union (like PATCO), or at least come to a reasonable contract. When General Motors rolled over, in my gut I knew it was the beginning of the end.
Second, General Motors lack of technological progress during the 1980s. It was during this time that I read about and drove so many new high-tech, high mileage cars being built by foreign competitors. Overhead cam shafts, four valve heads, five speed transmissions, and the use of high strength lightweight materials. My Pontiacs were being built with ancient three speed automatic transmissions, pushrod equipped cast iron blocks with two valve heads, inexpensive and heavy materials, and dismal gas mileage combined with poor performance. At that year's Pontiac Masters conference during a question-and-answer session where top dealers could query the General Motors vice president and head of the Pontiac Motor Division directly, I asked him if General Motors had decided to permanently cede the leadership in all automotive engine technology to the Japanese. His answer to me was essentially "yes", that General Motors could make more money selling existing technology to their established customer base and that the huge amounts of money required to design and build new high-tech engines would be a financial loser for General Motors and their dealers. Good grief!
Third and last. There is virtually nothing that a GM employee could do, whether they were a manager or a UAW member, that would get them fired. An employee could make a mistake that would cost the company $100 million dollars and that employee would not get fired. Any mistake, no matter how idiotic, reckless, or even intentional, would earn any GM employee a pink slip. I queried countless high-level General Motors employees, some of them a 30 year management veterans. My question, "In your entire career as a General Motors manager have you ever fired anybody for cause?". NEVER ONCE did a General Motors executives tell me he had fired an employee. A couple times they did say, "No, but I transferred somebody once". When a company is willing to tolerate any level of incompetence or lack of effort, they will certainly get it. Please note I am not talking about layoffs here where large numbers of employees are terminated because of downsizing. I'm talking about firing an individual because he's not getting the job done.
The attitude of most people involved seemed to be that General Motors was so large and had been around for so long, that nothing could bring it down. They were invincible. If a beast is large enough, an infinite number of parasites may attach themselves to it without causing it's demise.
12 years ago I lost faith in General Motors long term ability to survive and compete as an auto manufacturer. I sold my Pontiac and GMC truck dealership to AutoNation. Six months ago AutoNation shut that dealership down and today it sits empty and abandoned.
Today it is indeed, a very sad day.
Chip
