"We have no reason to be cocky or arrogant anymore," says GM Vice President Susan Docherty.

She may have one of the toughest jobs at General Motors.  As the new vice president of the BPG Group, Susan Docherty has to find a way to take three troubled brands, Buick, Pontiac and GMC truck, and stitch them into a cohesive – and profitable – distribution channel. BPG is one of the three remaining pillars of the downsized General Motors, the other two channels being Chevrolet and Cadillac. It’s also one that critics say the company can no longer afford.

Company insiders say that if anyone is up to the challenge, it’s the 45-year-old Docherty, whose most recent assignment put her in charge of GM’s Western Region. It was a humbling experience, considering that in states like California, the automaker is barely an also-ran in an import-dominated market.

TheDetroitBureau’s Paul A. Eisenstein caught up with Docherty following her appearance at the New York International Auto Show, where GMC unveiled its critical new crossover, the Terrain.

TDB: General Motors has been making some major changes since it began asking for a government bailout.

Docherty: There’s an impression people have that we just got religion. A lot of what’s happening was already in place even before we went to Washington (last year) to ask for help. There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re not the same old GM. But with the spotlight on us, it’s forced us to make decisions we might have wanted to years ago. We’ve made more changes, at GM, in the last eight months than we did in the last eight years. But change is not new for us. This isn’t our first rodeo.

TDB: How does the Buick/Pontiac/GMC group fit into the newly reinvented General Motors?

Docherty: I have three children, and each has a different personality. They’re all at different stages and all have different needs.

TDB: Okay, so let’s start with GMC.

Docherty:Think of the brands I have. The healthiest is GMC. What it stands for is pretty clear, and it’s been profitable, for a long time, with its SUVs.  Now we have to stretch the brand with vehicles like the Acadia and Terrain, which take us into entirely new segments.

TDB: How about Buick?

Docherty: Buick is going through an incredible renaissance. The Enclave (a large, crossover-like SUV) was our test bed, and it’s proved we could bring in buyers who are at least 10 years younger than the average age of the rest of the fleet, buyers who are better educated, and half of whom are conquests. The job now is to repeat what we did with Enclave when we launch (the mid-size sedan) LaCrosse.  It’s going to be very difficult going from a large crossover to a mid-size sedan segment, where we have some incredibly tough competitors.

TDB: As for Pontiac, you’ve already said it will be a niche brand with only a few products – effectively going away, as will the Hummer, Saab and Saturn brands. What does that leave for a company that once accounted for more than half of the U.S. automotive market?

Docherty: With four core brands, we still want to have a 20% market share.  But we definitely don’t need to be staffed up like we were when the company had a 40% share.

TDB: If you’re going to hold onto that much share, how do you make sure that the next generation of BPG products are more in touch with consumers than some of the vehicles that didn’t do very well, in years past?

Docherty: The difference today is that there’s a lot more focus on the customer. Of course, you’ll probably look at me and say why wasn’t there before.  But a good example of what we’re doing now is how we prepared for the Terrain.  We did a lot of garage visits, where we spent a lot of time in people’s garages, seeing how they used their vehicles and what the competition was doing, products ranging from the Volvo XC70 to the Hyundai Santa Fe.

TDB: You realize, a lot of people think it’s simply too late?

Docherty: It’s not.  But that’s certainly a question we heard a lot, including feedback we got from Congress, when a lot of Congressmen and Senators asked if we need a U.S. auto industry. Well, we do. It’s responsible for one of every 10 jobs in this country.  So, we were happy to see the support we got from President Obama, on March 30^th, when he said the U.S. auto industry was critical to the country. But we understood when he said we had not gone fast enough or deep enough.

TDB: So, how do you accelerate the GM viability plan, especially with the president giving GM just 60 days to make it more convincing?

Docherty: That’s something all of us are working on seven days a week, right now. I don’t just need a healthy GMC, but a healthy Buick and Pontiac.

TDB: I’ve often heard senior GM officials, including former CEO Rick Wagoner, insist that there’s a “wellspring of support” for General Motors, among the American public. Yet, the polls show the vast majority of Americans don’t support a bailout and sales numbers suggest that motorists aren’t exactly rushing to support you with their dollars.

Docherty: That’s very clear. There isn’t anyone here at the company that doesn’t understand. We’ve been handed a lifeline and we’re going to take advantage of it.  The government isn’t running our company but telling us to fix our problems, in short order.  That air of arrogance you’ve long seen, well, we have no reason to be cocky or arrogant anymore.