A Record of Failure: Rick Wagoner

For those of you who don't know Rick Wagoner is the former CEO and Chairman of the well known auto company GM. In the last few years many companies have been forced to file for Chapter 11 and have asked for government bailouts, GM was one of those companies. Rick Wagoner flew to D.C. on a private jet to ask for taxpayer money to bail out a company he had caused to lose more than $80 billion. If President Obama was going to give this company money then he had no choice but to ask (make) Rick Wagoner resign from GM.

Rick Wagoner had many failures in his years as CEO at GM. To read more about them click here. Some of his better known failures include the car lines of Saturn, Hummer, Saab, and Pontiac that now are basically nonexistent. These failures don't just hurt the company though they hurt the people who own these cars. A few months ago my sister, who owns a Saturn, had a part go out in her car that needed replaced immediately. She was told to order the part, since Saturn parts are no longer made, it would take at least 6 months. Something that for a Toyota car would only have taken a week at the most more then likely. Under Rick Wagoner GM had market share losses every year and was going billions into debt.

I am not sure if there is anything Rick Wagoner could have done to turn this around because honestly after everything I have read and heard about this it seems as if he had no knowledge whatsoever to the car industry trends. I think he had some business knowledge and had worked in the car industry but was not capable or ready to lead a company into the future. The Board of Directors should have recognized their losses though and should have seen how badly the company was doing. The Board of Directors should have spotted their inability to keep up or even pass the competition in car design and build. They should have noticed that maybe Rick Wagoner wasn't the best leader for the position and to give someone else a go at it. But they were blinded by his charm and ability to win over a room.

What are your thoughts? Should the Board of Directors noticed the decline in the company sooner and done something?


Posted by: Amy Beagles