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April 06, 2005
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Lutz, Cowger to Focus Full-Time on Global Assignments; Wagoner Assumes Leadership of GM North America

DETROIT - General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner announced a series of senior leadership changes today as the next step in transforming GM into a globally integrated business.


Bob Lutz & Rick Wagoner

Vice Chairman Bob Lutz and Group Vice President Gary Cowger will focus full-time on their global responsibilities: Lutz on leading GM's global product development activities, and Cowger on global manufacturing/labor.

Lutz and Cowger will relinquish their current roles at GM North America, and Wagoner will assume leadership of GMNA, while retaining his current positions.

"Given the challenges we face in North America, it makes sense for me to assume control of GMNA's day-to-day operations and shorten the lines of communication and decision-making," Wagoner said.

"At the same time, as we look at our global business, it's clear that the two areas most critical to our future success are achieving excellence in every product we develop, and doing it with the most competitive manufacturing system. And Bob and Gary are our two executives most experienced and skilled in these key areas."

 

Wagoner noted that GM has operated much of its business on a global basis for several years now and has made considerable progress in better utilizing its global resources and capabilities to serve regional and local markets more effectively.

"We've come very far on the long journey from our traditional standalone business model for each major national market, and more recently for each of our four regions. Now's the right time to accelerate the global integration of two of our most important functions, product development and manufacturing/labor," he said.

Today's move follows last month's announcement that GM had appointed several executives to global positions in product development.

"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," Wagoner said.


Gary Cowger

"I'll continue to value his business advice and support, but 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."

Wagoner noted that GM has made tremendous progress in implementing its Global Manufacturing System around the world, including industry-leading health and safety performance, higher quality and productivity.

"Now, the next stage is to enhance our manufacturing flexibility globally and more effectively integrate our global manufacturing capacity. It's logical to have Gary focus his full efforts on that," he said. "He has worked effectively around the world, and understands the opportunities and challenges of leveraging our manufacturing capabilities.

"In manufacturing, one of our biggest challenges is our lack of cost-competitiveness in the United States, which is due to our legacy costs, especially the ever-increasing burden of high health-care expenses," Wagoner said. "Addressing this challenge in a fair and equitable way requires close work with our union partners, in addition to our ongoing work with government and health-care providers. With his vast experience in labor relations, Gary is the ideal person to do this."

"I look forward to working closely with an energized, aggressive GMNA team, including several recently appointed new leaders, to move faster on the path toward re-establishing profitability in GM's largest regional business unit," Wagoner said.

"I feel confident today's moves will accelerate GM's transition to a globally integrated automotive business that takes full advantage of our global expertise and delivers the kind of products that our customers expect in each local market, as well as the business results that our shareholders deserve."

(April 03, 2005)

Photos: GM

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