GM President Mark Reuss says he's "tired of taking punches," but admits the automaker has a lot of work to do to repair its tattered image.
While December brought another sales decline for General Motors, there are some clearly positive signs, said Mark Reuss, the automaker’s president of North American operations, and that could bring an end to the sharp cutbacks the automaker has been suffering in recent years.
Several recent products, such as the Chevrolet Camaro, are in short supply, noted Reuss, during a media roundtable at the 2010 North American International Auto Show, and the automaker is looking for ways to bump up production capacity at several of its plants in the U.S. and Canada.
That and the need to update its portfolio could lead GM to start hiring again after years of steady cuts, said Reuss. “If I’m doing my job right,” he said, “I’d like to do that.”
The automaker is also looking at the possibility of reopening several plants it idled but kept on its books after going through Chapter 11 reorganization, last Summer. (A number of other facilities were permanently idled as a result of the bankruptcy process.)
“I don’t want to see good plants sitting idle,” the executive noted, adding, “I’d like to have some plants we can allocate (new) product to.” One under consideration is the old Saturn facility in Spring Hill, Tennessee, though Reuss stressed that GM is not ready to confirm that the factory will, in fact, reopen. Nor would he discuss what product might be added at Spring Hill or other idled facilities.
“On a business basis,” Reuss continued, “having your assets not used is a problem.”
During his discussion. At the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, Reuss acknowledged that many American consumers have become disenchanted with GM, over the years, and that it won’t be easy to win them back, especially along the import-oriented coasts. Other GM officials have suggested that solid new product could solve that problem, but Reuss warned that product alone isn’t the solution, pointing to the well-reviewed G8 sedan, which failed to revive the failing Pontiac brand.
“It can’t be only product,” he emphasized. “If I don’t have a good relationship with customers, nobody will come” to GM showrooms.
Reuss is taking the job of improving the company’s image personally. “You better know I stand behind it. This company has to stand for the mark of excellence again.”
The son of a former GM president, Reuss noted he plans to do his own field research once the current auto show season winds down, in mid-spring. Among other things, he plans to quietly drop in on dealers big and small across the country to play “mystery shopper.” That’s a bit different from the normal way things are done, setting out company employees and consultants to gather data and report back on what they see.
“What I’m going after here will be unfiltered,” he argued.
Despite taking an uncommonly candid position on the company’s image problems, Reuss did admit “I don’t like taking punches anymore. I’m tired of it (and) it’s time to go kick some butt.”