Cadillac has a new boss, but the luxury division made an unexpected move when it tapped Bryan Nesbitt, GM's well-regarded director of North American Design to become its new general manager.
Within automotive circles, you’ll often hear a debate over the role of “car guys” and “bean counters,” those who come from the product and engineering side and those with financial backgrounds. But the chimneys get narrower when you start talking about those who specialize in engineering, design, marketing or sales. And, with rare exception, those from one discipline don’t cross into another.
There are a few rare exceptions, like General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, who was trained as a marketer, but spent the last eight years as GM’s “car czar,” before taking on his latest assignment as the automaker’s marketing chief. While that news made headlines, a similar transition slipped by almost entirely under the radar. Designer Bryan Nesbitt was named the new general manager of GM’s flagship Cadillac division.
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The effervescent Nesbitt began making a name for himself at Chrysler, where he was credited with the design of the standout PT Cruiser. He was later wooed to GM, where he has been on the design fast track, taking on assignments in Europe, where he spent six years as design director, before a 2007 appointment as head of North American design. In his new role, Nesbitt will bring to market several of the products developed by his former design team, including the critical ATS entry-luxury model, and the premium luxury XTS4 sedan.
TheDetroitBureau’s Paul A. Eisenstein spoke with Nesbitt about his new job, those new products and the challenges facing Cadillac in a world full of tough luxury competition.
Q: Despite the press release, with all the changes kicked off by GM’s emergence from bankruptcy, your new appointment was almost lost in the shuffle. It’s unusual for a designer to move to the business side. So, let’s begin by talking about that transition.
Nesbitt: For me, it’s very exciting because I love this side of the business. It’s still very much a way to interface with the customer. And designers, today, have to work closely with marketing to develop their strategies. As a designer, you’re visually articulating what the customer wants – in the case of Cadillac, with an Art and Science DNA. Now, I’m talking about everything else, including the dealership experience and even the website. It can’t be just product when you’re talking about a luxury brand. Ultimately all of it gets distilled into a judgment about the brand, everything we see, so it all needs to be managed. In design, that’s how we think about it, so it wasn’t so much of a jump, for me. It’s all part of a strategy to create equity for the brand.
Q: It’s been about eight years since the so-called “Cadillac Renaissance” began, but more recently, a number of products haven’t done very well, like the latest STS and DTS models. If Caddy is stalled, what can you do to get it going again?
Nesbitt: General Motors learned that it didn’t have enough resources to manage eight brands, so they all became victims, in the end. The comforter was never big enough for the bad. It took tremendous effort to do what we did with the new CTS. We’ve been on a mission, over the last decade, and I think we have one of the most distinctive identities in the luxury segment, and now we’re getting traction for it. But we’d like to have more product sooner (to replace) products like the DTS, which is long in the tooth, no question about it.
Q: How does the big new XTS4 work for you? And what about the small car, which you’ve tentatively named the ATS, how does it fit in?
Nesbitt: We need volume. We need to grow. So, we have to think about the growth opportunities in places like Russia and China. We also have to seed new customers, and today, we don’t have a product that does that. Without seeding new customers that will keep coming back, we have a barrier to growth. The ATS reaches customers who can’t afford the CTS. And if you look at the market for products like the (BMW) 3-Series and (Audi) A4, there’s huge volume. Huge volume potential.
Q: That’s about the only segment of the luxury market that’s growing, the entry-luxury segment. But it’s also getting crowded with a lot of other new competitors.
Nesbitt: That’s a challenge. But, as I go through product briefings, I see every segment is competitive. There is no low-hanging fruit. You just have to come up with something that’s both very credible and very original.
Q: We’ve seen huge growth in the number of models being offered by luxury leaders like Mercedes-Benz. It’s become an alphanumeric soup. How broad a line-up does Cadillac ultimately need to compete?
Nesbitt: A lot of those product choices were added before the collapse of the market. It was a time when it was all grow, grow, grow, grow, grow. So, I wonder, now, how much retreat will take place. For us, we have our own challenges establishing ourselves in entry luxury and re-establishing ourselves in large luxury. We can’t compromise the core vehicles, our three-sedan strategy, to do vehicles that are very much niche.
Q: Let’s say that core succeeds, how much more would you like?
Nesbitt: That’s a matter of constant debate. When we look at vehicles like the (BMW) X3 or (Mercedes) GLK, they certainly cost a lot to produce. Are they really going to establish their own presence? Do they really have a function, or are they just here for a period of time? That’s why we continue to study them. But we just introduced the (extended-range electric vehicle) concept, the Converj. We’re trying to see if it can find a niche. It has a very serious test role.
Q: Our parents tended to buy cars by the pound. Mini has changed things, a bit. Will small luxury cars like the ATS break the connection between size and price? Do you need to break it?
Nesbitt: It will take a lot of study and consideration. We have developed many ideas around the idea of how small is too small? For the Germans, it makes sense, considering the infrastructure in Europe. But, we’re an American company, and our mission is to be authentic to our heritage. And our opportunities abroad aren’t going to be so much Western Europe, but Eastern Europe and Russia and China, and how they perceive luxury is very similar to how we perceive it here in the U.S.
Q: But even in China, the government has taken steps to nudge the market towards smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. And there are plenty of folks who believe that trend will spread to the U.S.
Nesbitt: Size is one way to achieve efficiency. But there are other ways. And there are people who want all the trim, want the premium experience and need the room, so even at $4 a gallon, a small car won’t satisfy it for them.
Q: Let’s get back to Converj, to wrap up. How important is that car and other green technology?
Nesbitt: Becoming more efficient is transcending for every economic group. It’s beyond just carrying a cross for the environment, there’s a real appreciation of smarter solutions. We’ll see more emphasis on smaller displacement engines that are boosted (with turbos or superchargers), I think we’ll see some very high-tech solutions like two and four-mode hybrids and electric vehicles. It’s just figuring what solution, and what size vehicle, fits each category. We’ll have to look at all the possible solution sets.Q&A: New Cadillac General Manager Bryan Nesbitt