GM's new CEO Mary Barra says the automaker must focus on giving customers innovative vehicles.
General Motors must focus on satisfying customers with great products, while making sure the company’s various regions and brands are sharing best practices and working towards uniform goals and objectives, GM’s new chief executive officer said Thursday.
“To me, what’s important is we’re focused on the product,” Mary Barra, GM’s new chief executive, said during a meeting with reporters at the company’s Detroit headquarters.
“I believe General Motors is an iconic company. People recognize the role that it plays. But at the end of the day, I don’t expect to get any free passes. It will depend on the strength of products and our brands. Public opinion is a bunch of individual opinions,” said Barra, who stressed the need for GM to deliver top-notch products throughout the meeting.
“We have to maintain the fortress balance sheet. This is a cyclical business. We want to make sure we have the financial performance that allows us to reinvest in the business,” said Barra, who started her career more than 30 years and worked her way up through GM’s management ranks after receiving a degree in electrical engineering from the old General Motors Institute in Flint, Mich.
She also said she did not expect to make major changes in the strategies put in place by former Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson, who retired Jan. 15.
“There is a strategy and the word (from me) is accelerate. Don’t expect any right or left turns,” she said, adding GM expects to maintain investment in new vehicles and maintain price discipline.
“We’re in it for the long term,” Barra told reporters, adding GM is also “looking for modest share growth” both in the U.S. and globally where it finished 2013 second behind Toyota. “But I’m not going into details.”
“We have a strategy. I think there is a lot of opportunity” around the world, added Barra, who noted GM’s different brands and regions traditionally have operated with a great deal of independence. However, she expects them to share best practices and Dan Ammann, GM’s new president, has the role of accelerating the entire process, she said.
“How we are aligned is critically important to me,” she said. “I believe in the power of collaboration and the power of teamwork. You don’t ever have perfect consensus. When I have to I’ll make the call,” said Barra, who was also quick to praise key subordinates, such as Ammann, whom she described as very talented, and Mark Reuss, who she said was “the best product guy” in the automotive business.
“Dan’s role is to focus on integrating the different regions and brands. There are pockets of good things,” said Barra, who spent part of her first full week as GM’s CEO meeting with the company’s top 300 leaders from around the world.
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Barra also said the warned the management team not to confuse internal progress with winning in the marketplace. “We’ve created an organization for winning,” she said.
“We also talked about innovation. I think we have a solid innovation,” she said. “I know it exists in the organization. We have clever (things) like putting a step in the rear bumper of pickup truck or the windshield wiper that goes on when it’s raining and how you shift the (Chevrolet) Sonic into reverse.”
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She added she wants more innovation and wants it implemented more quickly with a focus on customers.
Barra also quality of GM’s customer service will also come in for a lot of attention, not only in the U.S., but also in other key markets around the world. She noted no automaker anywhere ranks in the top tier in terms of customer service. But she would like to see GM make a breakthrough in this critical area, she said.