Peter Brown is associate publisher and editorial director of Automotive News.
1. Fritz Henderson did a heck of a job as the bankruptcy/reorganization CEO of GM. He dumped $90 billion in liabilities from an utterly failed financial wreck.
Fritz systematically went after all GM's creditors and -- with, of course, a massive assist from the Obama administration and U.S. bankruptcy code -- cleaned up the company's balance sheet.
He's the finance guy's finance guy. There were no mysteries for him in this radical remaking of GM's finances.
Henderson leaves a company with a clean balance sheet, competitive costs and some fine cars and trucks.
But long term, he was always doomed. Fritz Henderson is the turnaround finance guy. The company no longer has a cost problem. It has a revenue problem. It needs stronger brands, including more great vehicles, better sales and higher prices. His many achievements around the globe were pretty much on the expense side, not the revenue side.
His departure surprises nobody. The timing, yes. The departure, no.
These two guys strode in and imposed solid business discipline on their huge organizations, and they drove strategy. But they didn't design cars and write ads. The auto industry really is different.
Ask Steve Feinberg at Cerberus how easy it is to make a fortune with a car company. And when John Smale, late of Procter & Gamble, became an activist chairman at GM, he imposed P&G brand management on GM. The results were catastrophic.
Salty-snack managers became heads of car lines. Car models were confused with brands, and brands such as Chevrolet and Oldsmobile suffered, sometimes to the death.
Whitacre must lead, impose business discipline and ask good questions. But if he has delusions of adequacy about being a car guy, if he gets into the details and tries to turn GM into AT&T, the clean balance sheet could get soiled fast.
3. Henderson and Whitacre have been extolling the virtues of speed. Do things fast. Decide fast.
More important is to decide right and execute.
Traditionally, Toyota thrived with a painfully slow decision-making culture. But once the company arrived at consensus, the company executed fast and nearly flawlessly.
GM's culture didn't fail so much because decisions were slow but because too many were off-base. It is an insular culture. GM people talk only to each other. They are most incurious about what others think and know. They don't ask questions. They too often have a tin ear about the buying public.
Right now, GM people are bragging about their new culture. Yes, they're critical of the old GM and of the ways of the past. Great. But it's still all navel-gazing within GM.
For the two decades I've been covering the company, starting with Roger Smith's regime, I've heard GM executives criticize the GM of the immediate past. Where has that led? Bankruptcy.
It's no great trick to look at your own company and criticize the past. The trick is to be curious, explore, know the customer and come upon solutions for the future. There's no evidence that the new GM will be a leader in that.
Whitacre needs to drive that kind of cultural change.
4. In his short statement at his no-questions press conference, Whitacre said GM needs to accelerate offering the best cars and trucks, "which will also mean a return to profitability" and faster payback of U.S. and Canadian taxpayers.
Far more important than the speed of the payback is the foundation of the company. Hurtling toward a short-term profit is not going to make GM beloved by consumers. The balance sheet and cost structure are OK. Now get the culture right, the cars and trucks right and the marketing right. Profitability will take care of itself, and the taxpayers might even make a few bucks.
5. Nobody will accuse this GM board of being pet rocks.