Word: gm
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...GM is torn between such scattershot cost cutting and developing a long-term strategy that will put it back on the high road. At its core, GM still has too many models (56), too many North American assembly plants (29) and too many workers (220,000) to support its U.S. market share, which has declined from 35% in the early 1990s to 31.1% in 1997. A buoyant North American economy cushioned the pain of losing share--the company earned $6.7 billion last year--but has masked the severity of the company's strategic woes. Last week a report issued...
...Flint, GM is trying to boost profit margins by outsourcing, a source of contention. But the company needs to make great leaps, not incremental steps. Analyst Stephen J. Girsky of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter estimates that to get into fighting shape, GM would have to close three assembly plants, eliminating as many as 34,500 blue-collar jobs. Try negotiating that. And the company needs to close about 2,300 dealerships...
...redundancy and stop competing with itself. Take the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird. In their heyday, the sporty siblings divided up a broad and profitable market of muscle-car enthusiasts. These days, though, muscle mania has waned, and the pair is left slugging it out in a narrowing segment. GM execs may want to keep at least one of the offerings to compete with the popular Ford Mustang, but they are faced with a dilemma: both cars are built in the same plant in Quebec, and killing one would threaten the other by making it prohibitively costly to produce...
...GM has plenty more candidates for the boneyard. Who would miss, say, the puny Chevy Metro, the unfashionable Buick Riviera or that boat on wheels the Cadillac Eldorado, outmoded cars that drain marketing resources. The Oldsmobile division, whose eroding customer base has put it on GM's hit list since the 1992 restructuring, still breathes...
...Senior GM executives have been criticized for sidestepping hard choices, focusing instead on building the company's business in China and South America despite meager returns. Chairman Smith's disengaged leadership style of leaving most labor and marketing decisions to subordinates doesn't help either...