Rick Wagoner
Rick Wagoner
George Richard "Rick" Wagoner, Jr.is an American businessman and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Wagoner resigned as Chairman and CEO at General Motors on March 29, 2009, at the request of the White House. The latter part of Wagoner's tenure as CEO of General Motors found him under heavy criticism as the market valuation of GM went down by more than 90% and the company lost more than $82 billion USD. This led to his being...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinessman
Date of Birth9 February 1953
CountryUnited States of America
There was an almost an 80% decline one year from 640,000 vehicles to 200,000, and now it's grown back. Our share has grown a lot.
This is a very big step forward that we will build on, ... the single biggest cost reduction that we've probably been able to announce in a single day in the history of G.M.
I own a huge number of shares of the company and have experienced the downside with our investors. I like it that way. That's the way it should be.
If you laid out the worst-case scenario, it could get very difficult for everybody,
If you look at our production schedule, we think we ought to be able to grow our sales. We feel good about our product, but there's no reason to put a target out there when nobody else does, and we get beat up on it.
If you look from 1992 to 1997, we've really reduced the number of car models from more than 100 to about 81. Our strategy is to have the right number of products. Segment the brands better. There's a lot of work being done on the distribution side of the business. And the data's showing that our new products are doing a very decent job in the market.
In order to improve financial results in 2006 and 2007, we are moving quickly to implement several important actions that will address these weaknesses in North America. And we have a good line of sight on the steps we need to take to further reduce structural costs on a global basis that will position GM for long-term success.
Health costs in this country are out of control, ... This will significantly improve our overall cost competitiveness ... and will be critical to getting GM North America back to profitability as soon as possible.
Health costs in this country are out of control,
Health care costs in this country are out of control, ... We would really like to see much more focus and leadership from elected officials, especially in Washington.
If I look at our priority list on the things we need to do to get cost-competitive, wage rates are nowhere near the top for us. We have a far greater burden in legacy costs, in flexibility of using our work force, in jobs banks than we do in wage rates.
Honestly, I can't tell you what I what I would be doing if I wasn't chairman of GM, because this is all I've done.
Generally, cars were not built to sit on dealer lots. It encourages the wrong kind of behavior in the whole system.
I don't see a big panacea reducing the number of brands we have.