In the News: New GM Head Doesn’t Know Shit (About Cars)

Perusing the news today I came across this little gem:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/10/whitacre-new-gm-chairman-_n_213611.html

I suppose it speaks volumes about the current state of our economy, or specifically the state of the auto industry that the appointment of a man who knows nothing about cars to the position of CEO of one of our most important auto companies shocks just about nobody.

I don’t know much about the business world, despite the fact that I am as of right now very much a part of it. But the world of art has similar principles to the world of business. Namely, I would not cast someone with no theater experience to play the part of Hamlet. Just as I would not presume to land a lead role in a multi-million dollar film project without a few small roles in feature films prior.

Why?

Because in order to handle a task as daunting as a lead role in a hundred million dollar feature or the part of Hamlet, one must understand the craft! Its just that simple.

Hamlet has depth. Hamlet is complicated. Noone without performance experience would be expected to understand how to mine that character’s depth and draw it to the surface no matter how talented they were.

There is alot on the line in a multi-million dollar film, not the least of which is getting good reviews and building up a fervor for the project. No producer will put a new face on a project like that unless there is a quantifiable amount of data showing that the actor can handle it!

This is simple! Why does GM insist on getting this wrong? The man doesn’t know cars…he has already admitted it. What do they think they are doing? Do they think he will magically get a bunch of new ideas about how to improve the vehicles they have in house, or do they just expect him to sign off on new ideas without any clue as to whether they are good ideas? Because he won’t know. It will be impossible for him to know.

He doesn’t know cars.

But by all means, place him in power. No qualifications? Who cares! As long as he is rich and he’s been a CEO before, I’m sure he’ll figure it out.

That is not the American way. This kind of shit has to stop happening if we have any hope of giving ourselves a better future.

It’s too late for GM, but it isn’t too late for the rest of our companies. Wise up people! Change is not just a hot button word. It’s real and it needs to happen.