Fritz Henderson Steps Down as GM CEO

[Kitdy]

Fritzy stepped down yesterday - word is he was forced out by the board. Autocar posits that it was because he wanted to close down Saab and they wanted to sell it. Others say it's because change wasn't coming fast enough.

He was only CEO for 8 months.

Replacing him as Interim CEO will be Chairman of the Board, Ed Whitacre - the guy seen in [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2ltL9Y34pg"]YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.[/nomedia].

Now begins the process of headhunting a new CEO, a task which may prove difficult. Who's gonna want that job? Some may say GM only has up to go, but others may say that they can still fall further. I read somewhere that some agency or something like that predicted cyclical bankruptcies for the US auto industry a la the US airlines in the day.

I was surprised this wasn't up on UCP yesterday as it's pretty big news. I felt the need to share it here in case anyone hadn't read it in the news or in the blogs.

[Ferrer]

Others say it's because change wasn't coming fast enough.

He was only CEO for 8 months.

That's a bit of a contradiction I'd say.

However, if he was forced to step down because he wanted to terminate Saab that's fine by me.

[roosterjuicer]

I dont know if I'd want that job. The govt is basically the puppet master there so i dont know how much control a ceo would have. additionally, someone qualified to run GM probably would not get paid enough to want to work there due to the limits on ceo compensation for companies receiving tarp funds.

[NicFromLA]

I read an interview with him (I believe it was in CAR) and he seemed pretty smart. I suspect he was telling the board a lot of things they didn't want to hear so they bounced him.

[csl177]

The government isn't running GM, nor acting as "puppetmaster". Right wing straw-man talking points inflame, not inform the debate.
He was chosen for his business accumen, not political connections... and there's the rub. He isn't part of Detroit's culture.

+1 NicFromLA. The inside line is that GM's management team took offense to Mr. Henderson's frank assessment of the company's
tenuous position in the world marketplace. A brand divestment strategy is one of the few options possible. Henderson's assertion that the broad product line is woefully uncompetitive put him at odds with GM division management insistence that they're still the best automobile builders, and can sell their way out of insolvency. Optimistic to say the least, considering the actual numbers. The Saab drama is just one part in a distraction campaign; the real story is Henderson wouldn't play the role he was expected to by company insiders, so they wanted him gone.

GM must pare operating debt, eliminate costs on existing inventories and bring products like Volt to market or they're just treading water.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

What a strange series of events. Henderson didn't seem very effective in his role and if he's having to constantly fight the board on decisions then he wouldn't be able to accomplish much anyway.

Either that or we should take this as a seriously damning assessment of GM's position. Watch this space.

[culver]

I read an interview with him (I believe it was in CAR) and he seemed pretty smart. I suspect he was telling the board a lot of things they didn't want to hear so they bounced him.

I really suspect that even the CEOs who screwed up such as Roger Smith are very smart. I don't think Henderson was ever meant to be a long term CEO. From what I've read the deal was GM didn't change enough in 6 months to make the new board happy. The writer seemed to question if that was a reasonable expectation or not. One of the things that's going to be very hard for GM is finding a replacement CEO. Thanks to the salary caps it's hard to find a CEO such as Ford did because GM simply can't pay that much. One one hand I think CEOs, like sports stars, are often over paid. If the whole market for CEOs and sports starts were to take a 70% pay cut I suspect most would still want their jobs and would still work just as hard. However, if the government imposes a 70% pay cut on GM but not on any of the other companies that might hire Mr. CEO why work for GM?

[Ferrer]

Because eventually you'll be able to raise your salary up to other CEO's levels or higher if you do better?

[RacingManiac]

Reality is though he really wasn't changing that much, especially if they wanted to depart from the Wagoner era. They proposed to sell Saab, Opel, and change lots of other thing, and so far the Saab deal fell though, and they decided to keep Opel, which to others can be perceived as failed proposal.

Fritz was always going to be an "interim" CEO anyway, infact he asked to remove the term from his title from the get go, but it was always the understanding....

[G35COUPE]

Fritz was still playing the good 'ol GM politics of downsizing and cutting cost. Fritz wasn't ready to be CEO. He failed woefully at trying to change the GM culture. He wanted to move forward with he old culture. How he was going to be successsful under the same old GM dispensation, was probably in doubt.

whitacre hoped that Fritz would be talking about drastic change in management and culture. Instead fritz played it safe and wanted to do what other CEOs do in hard times---cut costs and close plants. Whitacre wanted a new way of designing exciting and reliable vehicles. In short, what GM needs is a mixture between BMW and infiniti design ideals. But, it will take a ton of cultural change to get there, and this is where fritz failed woefully.