Interim CEO of General Motors, Ed Whitacre, held a webchat this morning to answer questions from journalists. It was completely devoid of any meaningful news, as webchats often are, but Mr. Whitacre did manage to scare the crap out of current GM executives in addition to spelling out his vision for the future. A sampling:
Will he hire a COO?
Does he actually like cars?
More riveting dialog after the jump.
So how about that IPO? An advertising VP? And how does he see that whole Opel thing?
What about that Steven Girsky guy, what's his role? And how will Whitacre assure accountability?
isaacl says:
06:29 AM, 12/ 9/09
As a limited share-holder in GM (through my tax dollars) I have to say I VERY disappointed in this fellows lack of tact, detail & honesty in this little web-event. He has thoroughly disappointed me. There is NO excuse for YES & NO answers in a forum where the whole world could read the them at thier leisure. It's rude and makes me think he thinks the whole thing is funny. Also, his 16 word answer regarding the European meeting was completely devoid of details. Which in GM's current state is inappropriate. It leaves me as a US taxpayer severely disappointed.
mrryte says:
08:09 AM, 12/ 9/09
Although I commend EW and GM for trying to being "accessible" to the public, I detest these shallow, staged PR sessions. They serve little purpose and the only people that are deceived are the people that engineer this nonsense.
bimmerjay says:
12:28 PM, 12/10/09
What a jerk.