Docherty gets what might be the most critical and difficult job at ailing General Motors.
Fritz Henderson, General Motors Company president and CEO, last night named Susan Docherty, 46, to the position of vice president, U.S. Sales, effective October 16, 2009. She was the general manager of the struggling Buick-GMC brands.
Year-to-date the Buick brand is off 37% and the GMC brand is down 41% in a market that declined 27%.
During a press conference earlier yesterday, Henderson said LaNeve would be leaving for a job at a non-automotive company on October 15, and that an announcement of the new job would be forthcoming.
He also said that GM is looking for outsiders with fresh ideas, but then hedged saying that reporters and analysts should not necessarily equate that desire with the outcome of the U.S. sales position.
GM now says it will look outside to fill the Buick-GMC general manager position.
“This will infuse new ideas and an outside perspective into our marketing efforts,” Henderson said in what might have been a hastily prepared statement.
Docherty replaces Mark LaNeve on the newly formed Executive Committee, charged with speeding up decisions and eliminating layers of moribund white-collar management.
Thus far, LaNeve’s new company has not announced his arrival, lending credence to our speculation that he was abruptly forced out by either Henderson or GM’s new 13-member board of directors, which met earlier in the week.
LaNeve’s apparent sacking came less than one week after GM announced September sales results, which were off 45% compared to what was an unusually strong month in September in 2008. GM’s U.S. dealers delivered just 156,673 vehicles in September. Year-to-to-date GM sales are down more than 36%.
If you look at market share in September 2009, the latest available period, GM was clearly number one with 21% — that is more than four share points better than Toyota and about six share points better than Ford Motor Company.
Based on sales numbers that are available, GM’s performance in the Canadian and U.S. marketplaces remains below the plan outlined in bankruptcy proceedings. This lack of positive business outcomes needs to be reversed before the company can proceed with a planned initial purchase offering (IPO) of stock sometime during the second half of 2010.
Profitability and positive cash flow, as well as share performance will be the key criteria for a successful stock offering. A successful IPO is needed if GM is to begin to pay back some of the money advanced by U.S. taxpayers, and finance UAW health care benefits.
It is not clear how much support Henderson has from board members. The long time GM insider was responsible for the restructuring plan that the U.S. Treasury department rejected as inadequate to qualify for taxpayer support.
When asked about the new board yesterday, Henderson said, “I’m not going to share what goes on in an individual board meeting, I would just say that they have been consistently supportive, and constantly consistent on moving fast, on executing our restructuring actions on reinventing the company on doing what we need to do on winning in the market.”
In the statement issued last night, Henderson said, “Susan will bring a wealth of experience from previous marketing and sales assignments,” Henderson said. “I have confidence that she will bring a new perspective to the position as she guides a new, lean, and customer-focused dealer network.”