Doug Parks was executive director and group vehicle line executive for electric cars including the Chevrolet Volt.
In the seemingly endless series of corporate moves that are always claimed to improve competitiveness, General Motors is restructuring its vehicle line engineering groups to consolidate current development executive roles and reduce new product birthing times. It appears to be the first major action under Mary Barra, a human resources executive who took over product development in January 2011.
While GM has had some recent product successes, it is by no means clear that GM can maintain and then increase its market share, particularly in the U.S. and Europe. GM’s U.S. marketshare is down 1.8% to 18.1% through June of 2012 compared to the first half of 2011. Worse from a global competitiveness point of view, preliminary first-half sales numbers indicate that Toyota Motor Corporation has surpassed GM as the world’s largest automaker.
Starting tomorrow, the latest GM reorganization removes a layer of management and eliminates 20 executive positions globally. GM claims, not for the first time, that the new structure eliminates redundancy and reduces complexity. In management theory this makes for faster decisions and instills clear accountability in the vehicle development process. Dan Akerson likely ordered the change as he is known to be pushing hard for clear accountability in GM’s bureaucracy as he struggles to reform the automaker and pay back the U.S. government for its bankruptcy financing.
Under the previous engineering management philosophy, a new car was developed under the direction of a vehicle line executive, vehicle line director and vehicle chief engineer, all of whom were compensated for holding down costs and delivering products on time. Nothing in the system looked at customer satisfaction or sales success, much to the chagrin of former product development head and Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, who was brought in to improve the cars and trucks and to consolidate global p.d. to make it more efficient.
What academic consultants and human resource people do not understand about performance metrics is their well-documented distorting effect on an organization. You have to be very careful what you measure, otherwise you end up with bad products, as demonstrated at GM for decades.
Now GM product programs will be consolidated under one executive chief engineer for each program, all of whom will report to Doug L. Parks, who has been appointed to the newly created position of vice president, Product Programs.
Parks was executive director and group vehicle line executive for electric cars, a position he held since March 2012. He had also earlier served as global vehicle line executive and global vehicle chief executive for electric cars, including the Chevrolet Volt.
“The realignment reduces complexity and drives single-point accountability for the execution of our vehicle programs,” said Mary Barra, GM senior vice president, Global Product Development.
Barra came to the high visibility position once occupied by formidable car guys, including Tom Stephens and Bob Lutz from her position as vice president, Global Human Resources. Before that appointment in 2009, Barra had been vice president, Global Manufacturing Engineering. Both Lutz and Stephens carried the title of vice chairman, so Barra’s job was downgraded in the previous GM reorganization.
Barra remains basically unknown to the product and engineering experts who cover General Motors, which is not saying that she cannot be successful. Success in product development is key of course to U.S. and Canadian taxpayers recouping their investment in the reorganized General Motors Company.
Last Sunday, General Motors tersely said that Global Chief Marketing Officer Joel Ewanick resigned, effective immediately. The resignation came just days before GM will release Q2 financial results, which will be negatively impacted by product launch and marketing costs, as well as the ongoing struggles of Opel, which is mired in the Eurozone crisis.
In the slowly recovering U.S. auto market, GM is falling behind, raising questions about the appeal of its surviving brands, and GM’s ability to sell them without heavy incentives. In June, sales of new cars and light trucks increased 22% from the same period a year ago, as the auto industry delivered almost 1.3 million vehicles for the month. However, GM only grew 16%. Worse, GM has only increased sales 4.3% calendar-year-to-date in a market that is up almost 15%.
See:
- GM Marketing Head Ewanick Resigns as GM Lags in Sales Growth
- Tom Stephens GM Vice Chair and Chief Technology Officer to Retire
- Ex HP Exec to Head GM’s Global Information Technology
- GM Annual Report Says No Dividend is Planned for Common
- General Motors Appoints Mary Barra, a GM Human Resources Executive, to Head Global Product Development
- Another GM Top Management Change as CFO Liddell Resigns
- GM Plans Four World Debuts at NAIAS. Where is Bob Lutz?
