GM chooses 'change agents' to speed decisions

• Source: Global Times
• [14:06 September 01 2009]
• Comments

General Motors Co. designated more than 50 managers to be "change agents" within the company as the biggest US automaker speeds up decision making, Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said.

"Culture change is not simple to do," Henderson, 50, said today in an interview at GM's headquarters in Detroit. "In the end, if you reinforce what you want in how you behave and how you act, the organization picks it up."

The 50 to 60 participants first met last week, Henderson said. Their role is to reinforce with peers and subordinates the importance of Henderson's "four pillars" of the new GM: speed, product and customer focus, accountability and risk taking.

Henderson is responding to the assessment of the US Treasury's auto task force that the old General Motors Corp., which filed for bankruptcy protection on June 1, moved too slowly, lacked accountability and was shut off from outside input about its business.

Managers and executives were chosen for the change-agent role because they embody the behaviors GM wants from all employees, said Henderson, a 25-year veteran of the automaker who previously was chief financial officer and chief operating officer.

"You've got to get your people involved," he said. "You've got to get your leadership involved, you have to be consistent, you have to be simple and have everyone understand what you're trying to get accomplished."

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GM's challenge will be overcoming ingrained corporate attitudes, said Edgar Schein, professor emeritus at MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

(Bloomberg)