Resume Subscription We are delighted that you'd like to resume your subscription. Please click confirm to resume now. Sponsored Offers. Most Popular News. Most Popular Opinion. Most Popular Videos. By requiring new cars and trucks to have a combined average of Specifically, cars and trucks will have to both shrink in size and lose weight—which costs money—or require significant amounts of new, expensive technology to improve their efficiency.
So while your future Chevrolet dealer may carry a few token Camaros, Corvettes, and HD Silverados among a sea of tiny penalty boxes, expect to pay a lot more for Detroit iron of all types. GM must return to profitability and pay back its government loans before the Treasury allows it to again become a publicly traded company. However, the problems remain sticky. For example, to what extent will the fallout of the reorganization affect the rest of the industry?
Chrysler also had to be bailed out, and after its own bankruptcy was rapidly merged with Fiat in a desperate rescue undertaken by the Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, who died unexpectedly this year. The carmaker had just 10 CEOs before the financial crisis. Externally, it was unclear the car business would recover. But Barra, Ammann, and Reuss weren't panicking. They were also revamping the automaker's byzantine financial system, which Obama administration "car czar" Steven Rattner, head of the Auto Task Force, had labeled as epically disorganized.
That process empowered Barra and Ammann to make long-overdue decisions, such as selling GM's perennially underperforming Opel-Vauxhall division in Europe to Peugeot in For Barra, return on investment became a mantra. There were no sacred cows, even brands that had been part of GM for decades.
Ammann also spent a lot of time with Reuss as part of a traveling "road show" for investors before the IPO. Reuss for a time had been in charge of GM's Australian and New Zealand operations, so he and Ammann could bond over their common experiences in the Southern Hemisphere. They also shared an arid sense of humor and a love of fast machines.
Reuss is well known for his skill behind the wheel, and if you ask around, people will tell you that Ammann is no slouch. We'll quickly get to a place where we can talk about it. I have no doubt that we make better decisions because of that. It creates a richer debate and a richer analysis. The core concept for all three executives is trust, built on a mutual respect for what Barra calls "leveraging diversity of thought. We look at things from multiple dimensions and make better decisions.
Their diversity shows up in obvious ways. Ammann obviously prefers a more casual wardrobe, while Barra favors subdued, tasteful ensembles. Reuss is usually wearing a sharp suit, elegant shoes, and a wristwatch from his collection.
Barra has enormous respect for Reuss' vast automotive knowledge and admires Ammann's ferocious ability to learn and learn fast. She considers Reuss the best car guy in the business, recollecting that Dan Akerson called him the soul of the company.
And she says that Ammann conducts himself as though he'd been at GM for decades, not just for eight years, thanks to his willingness to go everywhere and meet everybody. A word he likes is "win," and Barra has translated that attitude into something of a mission statement.
So once you get that as a mindset, you can then figure out what it's going to take to solve the issues that are preventing you from getting there. Don't tell me why you couldn't do it in Tell me what it takes to get it done now.
GM has been doing plenty of winning since , but, yet again, when I ask Reuss if it's pat-ourselves-on-the-back time, he looks at me as if I were insane. Being the largest automaker in North America and No. But he refuses to relax, and he hasn't given into the temptation to rest on his accomplishments since a tough day over 25 years ago, when his father, Lloyd Reuss, at one point a candidate to become GM's CEO, was fired.
The son, then just starting out at the company, had to make a difficult decision: Stay or go? He stayed, but it wasn't a party. GM struggled through profitless years leading up to the bankruptcy. When Reuss was in Australia, he and his team were essentially running GM's business there with whatever money came in the front door each day, as the financial crisis dried up corporate credit.
With any luck, this monumental moment will show Americans that bankruptcy should not carry a stigma. It's not a shameful process, but instead an orderly way in which to give honorable companies a second chance. GM deserves it. You can e-mail Nathan Bomey or follow him on Twitter. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
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