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  • 1.  GM and Chapter 11

    Posted 06-02-2009 10:23
    Dear Colleagues,
     
    What happened to the value that stated: "Whatever is good for General Motors is good for America"?  Should the rest of the larger US-based corporations go through chapter 11 and have their depths forgiven?  Isn't anyone going to ask how GM went bankrupt?
     
    I have my own theory and it points to a generation of managers that were more interested in self above service.  When financial objectives were placed before product quality and service, the spiral down began.  When the Japanese car companies came to the US, they found much to their surprise that Detroit did not have a taste for competition and would give away the less profitable segments of their market.  Japanese executives could not understand how easy it was to move up the food-chain to the top.  When was giving away market share rather than competing for it a recommended strategy?  Clearly, our system is out of control and increasingly more dysfunctional.  How do we turn this system around before out big easy US corporations seek chapter 11 or 7?
     
    George Graen
    University of Illinois, C-U (Ret.)
    Center for Strategic Management Studies
    CSMSINC
    /jag

    We found the real 'Hotel California' and the 'Seinfeld' diner. What will you find? Explore WhereItsAt.com.


  • 2.  GM and Chapter 11

    Posted 06-02-2009 11:39
    Perhaps it's time to truly practice total quality leadership/management
    and outstanding customer service. Taking things for granted simply
    promotes dysfunctionality.

    John

    John T. Eggers, Ph.D
    Correctional Program Specialist
    National Inst. of Corrections Academy
    791 Chambers Road
    Aurora, CO 80011
    Ofc. 800-995-6429, ext 4405 or
    303-365-4405
    Cell: (202) 353-5588
    jeggers@bop.gov

    >>> George Graen <Lmxlotus@AOL.COM> 6/2/2009 8:22 AM >>>
    Dear Colleagues,

    What happened to the value that stated: "Whatever is good for General
    Motors is good for America"? Should the rest of the larger US-based
    corporations go through chapter 11 and have their depths forgiven?
    Isn't anyone
    going to ask how GM went bankrupt?

    I have my own theory and it points to a generation of managers that
    were
    more interested in self above service. When financial objectives were
    placed before product quality and service, the spiral down began. When
    the
    Japanese car companies came to the US, they found much to their
    surprise that
    Detroit did not have a taste for competition and would give away the
    less
    profitable segments of their market. Japanese executives could not
    understand how easy it was to move up the food-chain to the top. When
    was giving
    away market share rather than competing for it a recommended strategy?

    Clearly, our system is out of control and increasingly more
    dysfunctional. How
    do we turn this system around before out big easy US corporations
    seek
    chapter 11 or 7?

    George Graen
    University of Illinois, C-U (Ret.)
    Center for Strategic Management Studies
    CSMSINC
    /jag
    **************We found the real ‘Hotel California’ and the
    ‘Seinfeld’
    diner. What will you find? Explore WhereItsAt.com.
    (http://www.whereitsat.com/#/music/all-spots/355/47.796964/-66.374711/2/Youve-Found-Where-Its-At?ncid=eml

    cntnew00000007)


  • 3.  GM and Chapter 11

    Posted 06-02-2009 13:03

    I'm not sure which system you believe is out of control, George.  It seems to me the larger economic system is working just fine.  Companies that provide quality products and services that customers actually want and are willing to pay for seem to be surviving and companies that don't measure up competitively are having serious problems.  Any fool can be reasonably successful when times are good, and almost every firms suffers to some extent when times are tough, but I don't think the "system" is in need of a turnaround.  Rather, firms, and their managers, who have gotten lazy, forgotten the customer, and/or have assumed that size and market share are guarantors of continuing success, need to be turned around within the system. 

     

    Ted W. Legatski, II, Ph.D.
    Associate Professor of Professional Practice in Management
    Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellow
    M. J. Neeley School of Business
    Texas Christian University
    P. O. Box 298530
    Fort Worth, TX 75129
    (817) 257-7921
    (817) 257-5775 (fax)
    t.legatski@tcu.edu
    http://sbufaculty.tcu.edu/tlegatski

     

    From: Management Education and Development Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of George Graen
    Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 9:23 AM
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: GM and Chapter 11

     

    Dear Colleagues,

     

    What happened to the value that stated: "Whatever is good for General Motors is good for America"?  Should the rest of the larger US-based corporations go through chapter 11 and have their depths forgiven?  Isn't anyone going to ask how GM went bankrupt?

     

    I have my own theory and it points to a generation of managers that were more interested in self above service.  When financial objectives were placed before product quality and service, the spiral down began.  When the Japanese car companies came to the US, they found much to their surprise that Detroit did not have a taste for competition and would give away the less profitable segments of their market.  Japanese executives could not understand how easy it was to move up the food-chain to the top.  When was giving away market share rather than competing for it a recommended strategy?  Clearly, our system is out of control and increasingly more dysfunctional.  How do we turn this system around before out big easy US corporations seek chapter 11 or 7?

     

    George Graen
    University of Illinois, C-U (Ret.)
    Center for Strategic Management Studies
    CSMSINC
    /jag

     

    We found the real 'Hotel California' and the 'Seinfeld' diner. What will you find? Explore WhereItsAt.com.



  • 4.  GM and Chapter 11

    Posted 06-02-2009 15:08

    It seems to me that the broken part of the system is the regulatory framework -   One of the responsibilities of government is to manage the economic system.  We may have philosophical differences about the characteristics we want the economic system  to have – that is the discussion that needs to take place.

     

    I keep hearing about needing less regulation.  But less regulation leads to enormous economic swings.  Do we want economic stability?  Is that one of our values as a nation?  Or, do we want to philosophically embrace free markets to the point that we are willing to suffer the wide swings that seem to be characteristic of a less regulated market?

     

    When Adam Smith was writing the world was quite different than it is today.  Most markets were very local and very fragmented.  If a firm failed it did not have large geographic implications the way the failure of a large global firm has widespread implications today.

     

    Let us discuss the characteristics of the economic system we wish to live and work under – and what are the rules of the game that need to be in place for the system to have those characteristics.  Keeping in mind Newton's laws of motion, for every action (in size)  there is an opposite (in direction) and equal  reaction  - I learned that in a science class somewhere along the line.    

     

    And, probably, the longer we delay the reaction, the more powerful it is! 

     

    Carolyn

     

    Carolyn J. Fausnaugh PhD CPA

    Assistant Professor of Strategy & New Ventures

    College of Business

    Florida Institute of Technology

    150 W. University Boulevard

    Melbourne, Florida 32901 - 6975

    321-674-7375  Office Phone

    321-674-8896  FAX

    cfausnau@fit.edu  E-mail

     

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Management Education and Development Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Legatski, Ted
    Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 1:03 PM
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: GM and Chapter 11

     

    I'm not sure which system you believe is out of control, George.  It seems to me the larger economic system is working just fine.  Companies that provide quality products and services that customers actually want and are willing to pay for seem to be surviving and companies that don't measure up competitively are having serious problems.  Any fool can be reasonably successful when times are good, and almost every firms suffers to some extent when times are tough, but I don't think the "system" is in need of a turnaround.  Rather, firms, and their managers, who have gotten lazy, forgotten the customer, and/or have assumed that size and market share are guarantors of continuing success, need to be turned around within the system. 

     

    Ted W. Legatski, II, Ph.D.
    Associate Professor of Professional Practice in Management
    Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellow
    M. J. Neeley School of Business
    Texas Christian University
    P. O. Box 298530
    Fort Worth, TX 75129
    (817) 257-7921
    (817) 257-5775 (fax)
    t.legatski@tcu.edu
    http://sbufaculty.tcu.edu/tlegatski

     

    From: Management Education and Development Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of George Graen
    Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 9:23 AM
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: GM and Chapter 11

     

    Dear Colleagues,

     

    What happened to the value that stated: "Whatever is good for General Motors is good for America"?  Should the rest of the larger US-based corporations go through chapter 11 and have their depths forgiven?  Isn't anyone going to ask how GM went bankrupt?

     

    I have my own theory and it points to a generation of managers that were more interested in self above service.  When financial objectives were placed before product quality and service, the spiral down began.  When the Japanese car companies came to the US, they found much to their surprise that Detroit did not have a taste for competition and would give away the less profitable segments of their market.  Japanese executives could not understand how easy it was to move up the food-chain to the top.  When was giving away market share rather than competing for it a recommended strategy?  Clearly, our system is out of control and increasingly more dysfunctional.  How do we turn this system around before out big easy US corporations seek chapter 11 or 7?

     

    George Graen
    University of Illinois, C-U (Ret.)
    Center for Strategic Management Studies
    CSMSINC
    /jag