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Digg
Ed, we hardly knew you.
Edward Whitacre Jr. is stepping down on Sept. 1 as General Motors CEO, after only about a year on the job.
He's handing over the reins to company director Dan Akerson, of The Carlyle Group , the buyout shop well-respected on Wall Street, and best known to Americans as the shadowy player in Farenheit 911.
Whitacre had always said he was serving in the dual role of chairman and CEO on an interim basis. Still, the selection as Akerson comes as somewhat of a surprise, only days before GM is expected to unveil its much anticipated IPO.
Akerson has been described as “a blunt-spoken, aggressive competitor.”
Akerson has an extensive resume with lots of corporate and private equity experience, but has had no experience running an industrial company like GM.
Like Whitacre, Akerson worked for many years in the telecom industry, including a decade-long stint at MCI Communications Corporation from 1983-1993. During his tenure there, he held positions of chief operating officer and chief financial officer.
Akerson went on to serve as Chairman and CEO of Nextel Communications, Inc., from 1996 to 2001, where (according to his bio on the Carlyle website) he transformed the company into a regional walkie/talkie provider into “a unique, leading edge national digital wireless competitor.” He joined Carlyle
To be sure, Whitacre had never run a car company before taking over GM last summer. But in his many years running the predecessor company to AT&T – SBC Communications – Whitacre was known for his deal making prowess, assembling a telecom powerhouse.
Those deal skills served him well at GM, where he sold off many of the company's underperforming brands (Saab and Hummer), but also played hard ball when he thought he wasn't getting a good value (the scuttled Opel deal)
Akerson, a former naval officer, is better known for his finance skills, heading Carlyle's global buyout group.
At MCI, he was credited with reducing the company's huge junk bond obligations , which came from MCI ’s massive network build out. In the process, he significantly improved MCI’s credit rating and balance sheet.
Of course, GM has had mixed results under finance - focused chiefs.
Rick Wagoner was GM's long term CFO, before he was named CEO in 2000. Wagoner agreed to leave the company as a condition of the Obama administration's bail out last spring. Wagoner was criticized for being too reluctant to make big cuts.
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Ford builds cars that people like. GM builds cars that accountants like. Guess who wins in the market place. Dan Akerson is not the guy for GM in the long term.
Chrysler was run by a bean-counter, and it took Lido Iacocca to bail them out: bean-counters have no place at the top of any company dedicated to making things.
A monkey would be a better choice.
GM needs a virtual genius to run it, with the huge problems it has. But Alan Mulally is already at Ford! These mediocre “bean-counters” (accountants) don’t have the vision, imagination, and, above all, that type of person hates taking risks, which have to be taken daily now in the auto business! GM’s quality has improved a little in the past 3 years or so, but is woefully behind Ford, Honda, and Hyundai, which are probably the top 3 now when you consider each company’s vehicles as a whole. The only thing right now that GM has going for it is that Chrysler is still on the bottom, quality-wise. As long as Chrysler is “holding down the bottom” in quality (as it has for many years now), then GM can at least say they’re better than somebody!!! As for their stock, who in the hell would even want it?! Now, that’s a risk that even most Las Vegas gamblers wouldn’t take!!!
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