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
cent couple double launch months per pleased products reaction sales three total
We are very pleased with the market's reaction to our launch products. In the first three months of the year, our new products accounted for about 30 per cent of our total sales ? more than double where we were a couple of years ago.
offer people products
We have to offer products people want to buy, not have to buy,
advantage based chrysler couple larger percentage products represent results sales terms total
That's because a couple products represent a larger percentage of the total at Chrysler than at GM. That can be an advantage and a curse, in terms of sales going up or down based on the results of a couple cars.
capacity element excess granted longer position productive strong
We no longer take it for granted that we can't be the most productive manufacturer. That's the way it used to be in the 1950s and l960s. We need to get back to that, as one element of a strong position in this excess capacity world that we're going to be in.
closely confidence consumer determine economic effect last monitor outlook prepared production resilient somewhat soon vehicle
While vehicle deliveries were somewhat resilient last week, it is too soon to determine the effect on consumer confidence, ... We will closely monitor the economic outlook and will be prepared to make appropriate production adjustments.
cost excited good moving news people price products successful supported
The good news is, we know what we need to do to be successful in the business. What we need to do is get products that people are excited about and price them the right way, supported by the right kind of cost structure, and I think in that sense it's moving pretty good.
business highlights model products profit reliance weaknesses
This really highlights one of the weaknesses of our business model is too much reliance on those products (large SUVs and pickups) for profit and not enough profitability from those other products,
assemble build fill finished pickup production products rather sell ship
We've been able to use NAFTA. We import a lot more products to fill niches. We don't have to assemble them locally. We've consolidated a lot around pickup trucks. Rather than build everything to sell in Mexico, you can ship finished products back and forth. You get the production efficiencies of scale.
architecture bob cars critical devote efforts energies felt full future global gm legacy needed ongoing product
With the ongoing globalization of GM's product development organization, and the implementation of our global architecture strategy, Bob felt he needed to devote his efforts to product development full time, and I agreed, ... Bob's legacy at GM will be in our future cars and trucks. It makes sense for him to devote his full energies to that critical task.
beat good grow nobody ought production reason sales target
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.
brands car decent job models number products reduced segment showing side strategy work
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.
industry mix products reflects reliance sales shifting
The industry sales mix is shifting away from the larger, higher-profit vehicles, even pickups, ... reflects too much reliance on those products for profitability.
cut pay percent taken
I've taken a significant pay cut this year, ... I think I'll have a 50 percent pay cut.
bold designed further gm improve position step success transition
These bold initiatives are designed to immediately improve our competitiveness and position GM for long-term success and today's transition is a further step in that direction.