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Mary Barra
CEO Designate, General Motors
Age:
Years as a CEO:
Tenure: 0
Industry: Autos, Aero & Defense
CEO DOSSIER
31% of sales in China puts GM in an advantageous position; can Mary extend GM’s push into emerging markets and come up with an answer on green motoring?
early years
Mary grew up in motor city as the daughter of a die maker for Pontiac. She can be considered a true GM girl, having started out with the company by studying at Kettering University (also known as the General Motors Institute). She was sponsored on the program by Pontiac and graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Later she would also gain an MBA from Stanford.
Following on from her degree, she joined GM as an apprentice engineer, climbing up GM management with a path that took her through various divisions. She spent time in manufacturing, engineering and human resources.
In 2010, she took over as the head of human resources, then in 2011, she was placed by CEO Dan Akerson as the executive in charge of product development. While working in this role, Mary's stock rose considerably. She managed to cut through the traditional bureaucracy of product development at GM and accelerate production programs, while also starting to produce vehicles that met the demands of consumers in the modern world.
In December 2013, it was announced that Dan Akerson would be retiring and that Mary would become GM's next CEO from January 2014. At that time there will also be the separation of the role of CEO and chairman into two positions.
As ceo
Talking of how she felt when she heard the news, Mary said, “Obviously, I was thrilled. I didn’t dream this would happen. This is an industry that’s in your blood, it’s an exciting industry, it’s a tough industry, but again it’s not something that I dreamed of as a child. But I knew I wanted to be an engineer.”
She further added some thoughts regarding her opinion of the current position of GM and plans for the company once she takes over:
“With an amazing portfolio of cars and trucks and the strongest financial performance in our recent history, this is an exciting time at today’s GM. I’m honored to lead the best team in the business and to keep our momentum at full speed.”
Dan Akerson speaks very highly of Mary, saying that he believes her to be a “change agent”, and is confident of her ability to make the right decisions no matter how tough they are:
“There are a lot of great things, a lot of great people at General Motors. There was a generation, I would say Mary’s generation of management, that had to learn from mistakes that were made. Young up-and-coming leaders of General Motors learned a lot from the prior generation, good and bad, and Mary was a very astute student.”
Mary will take over from a man who has helped to reshape GM in the wake of its bailout by the government and put it in a position to prosper moving forward. The company has recently returned to the stock market, recorded 15 consecutive quarters of profitability and most recently has freed itself from government control with the sale by the US Treasury of its last remaining stake in the company.
GM is currently a completely different beast to the one that teetered on the brink of disaster in 2008. It now resembles a modern car company, but there is still plenty of work to do to continue the progress and the job of delivering that will fall to Mary.
One area likely to feature highly on Mary's plans is China. Currently it accounts for 31% of GM's sales and it has a very strong brand presence. She says, “China is a very significant market. We have a series of launches coming up.”
Mary will need to be on top of her game to bring further standardization of parts across models, in an effort to save costs. She will also want to put GM in a position to cope with slowing growth in global economies, the continued re-establishment of the brand, strong competitors, and big choices regarding the future direction to go with technology.
Away from work
Mary is married with two children.
Leadership and philosophy
Within GM, Mary has gained a reputation for working with a more collaborative type of management style than traditionally seen in the company. She also has the confidence to allow people to do their job. When she took over the product development part of the business she talked of there being too many boundaries which constricted designers and engineers. She wanted to put the focus on giving them the tools to do their job. It was at this time that she coined the simple mantra, “No more crappy cars!”
Michelle Krebs, an analyst at Edmunds.com describes Mary as being “rock solid” and “tough”. Her view of Mary is this:
“She’s quiet on the outside but internally she is extremely effective and a strong leader. She came up through the manufacturing ranks. They are not as bad as they used to be but any woman who comes up that way has to be tough.”
Additionally, Mary has a reputation for being able to make tough decisions that produce the necessary results. A GM statement regarding Mary stated her as:
“A leader in the company’s ongoing turnaround, revitalizing GM’s product-development process resulting in the launch of critically acclaimed new products while delivering record product-quality ratings and higher customer satisfaction.”
Our Three Questions
1. 31% of sales in China puts GM in an advantageous position; how do you plan to continue the expansion into emerging markets?
2. GM is behind in the move into hybrid and electrical car categories; is this a priority for future product development?
3. What changes are on your agenda to help continue to put GM in a position to avoid a similar disaster to what happened in 2008?
Colleagues, Friends & Analysts' report
Michelle Krebs, a veteran auto analyst at Edmunds.com, talks about Mary's appointment:
“Mary has been rumoured to be a top candidate for some time, but there were always other contenders. Too many times we have seen the auto industry become a great training ground for women executives who then move on to other industries.”
Date Written
13-12-2013Sources
Bloomberg Businessweek
Detroit News
Forbes
Mashable
The Guardian
Bloomberg Businessweek
Detroit News
Forbes
Mashable
The Guardian
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Financials
Business summary
Employees: 213,000
General Motors Company (GM) designs, manufactures, and markets cars, crossovers, trucks, and automobile parts worldwide. The company markets its vehicles primarily under the Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Opel, Holden, and Vauxhall brand names, as well as under the Alpheon, Jiefang, Baojun, and Wuling brand names. It also sells cars and trucks to dealers for consumer retail sales, as well as to fleet customers, including daily rental car companies, commercial fleet customers, leasing companies, and governments. In addition, the company offers connected safety, security and mobility solutions, and information technology services. The company, through its subsidiary, General Motors Financial Company, Inc. provides automotive financing services and lease products through GM dealerships in connection with the sale of used and new automobiles that target customers with sub-prime and prime credit bureau scores. The company was founded in 1908 and is based in Detroit, Michigan.
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