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
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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
offer people products
We have to offer products people want to buy, not have to buy,
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.
agree american-businessman blow time whistle
We don't always agree on stuff, but when it's time to blow the whistle and start the game, we're not still debating.
chance interested level playing
We're not interested in a bailout, but we would like a chance to play on a level playing field.
allow building business critical further phase position preserve
This transaction will allow us to preserve our business relationship, while further building up GM's already significant liquidity position during this critical phase of our turnaround.
american-businessman believe dollar exchange fair intervene japan massive practice rates
We believe in fair exchange rates and Japan doesn't practice that. They have massive U.S. dollar reserves, and they use them to intervene regularly.
believe dollar exchange fair intervene japan massive practice rates
We believe in fair exchange rates and Japan doesn't practice that, ... They have massive U.S. dollar reserves, and they use them to intervene regularly.
affect bigger combined consumer desires efficient fuel gasoline move people seen smaller trade
What I've seen around the world is if the regulatory desires are combined with things that affect consumer behavior - such as in Europe, they tax gasoline very heavily - you do get people to move to very fuel efficient cars; trade off bigger vs. smaller cars.