Ex-Chairman: Bad Management Almost Killed GM

Former General Motors Co. chairman Ed Whitacre, who took charge of the company when it emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009, says the company nearly failed because of poor management, The Detroit News reports.

The newspaper cites an advance copy of Whitacre's memoir, American Turnaround: Reinventing AT&T and GM and the Way We Do Business in the USA, which is scheduled for publication on Feb. 5.

Whitacre, who added the GM CEO job in December 2009, refutes the excuses offered by his predecessors for the carmaker's downward spiral. The U.S. economy, GM's unions and the Japanese yen weren't to blame, he insists. The problem, he contends, was that the company's top brass "never had the smarts or the guts" to change course.

Whitacre says Dan Akerson, who succeeded him as chairman and CEO in September 2010, believed GM was one of the worst-run companies he'd ever seen and didn't like its vehicle lineup.

Whitacre opines that GM most valuable asset is its talented employees. But he believes the company has yet to reach peak efficiency, saying it still has "a lot of fat" to cut out.

Among the book's other revelations:

GM's post-bankruptcy board gave CEO Fritz Henderson 90 days to prove himself. Whitacre complains that after five months, the CEO had made only "a tweak here, a tweak there." The board agreed unanimously in December 2009 to fire Henderson.

Whitacre learned by accident in January 2010 that GM was on the verge of moving nearly 4,000 employees from its Detroit headquarters to its technical center in suburban Warren. No one had informed the company's board of the plan, which would have cost at least $100 million. Whitacre says he "shut it down" with one phone call.

* He tried to simplify the business, shedding consultants and barring long PowerPoint presentations to the board. Managers were required to make oral presentations to directors lasting no more than 10 minutes.

Whitacre grew weary after months of board delays in approving $400 million for the new family of fuel-efficient Ecotec engines. He authorized the program himself rather than let the board spend another meeting grilling managers.

Whitacre approved General Motors Ventures LLC a $100 million venture capital unit to invest in advanced technologies after a 10-minute presentation.

He felt like a "traitor" when he decided in August 2010 to leave GM. But Whitacre says he couldn't commit to staying another three years, as investors would expect from the CEO of a company launching its initial public offering.