Welch, David (2005) Why GM’s plan won’t work BUSINESS WEEK, 5/9 85-94.

General Motors continues to stumble. At one time, GM was America. The multi-layered bureaucracy with 5 or 6 division that reached all over the world was king. . Then Asia and other countries produced at first junk than excellent vehicles. Toyota has almost surpassed GM. Although there is still a lot of money in the conglomerate, the car division is suffering.

One of the saving graces is the General Motors dealer in small towns where others dealers are many miles away. Thus, one buys a GM car. However Toyota and other car companies are assembling now in the states. Dealerships are spreading.

GM is now doing much of the same but changing their rhetoric. The cars are still high maintenance with recalls. Perhaps they need to declare bankruptcy so that they can reduce the load of retirees that they have committed to relative to health care and pension. They also need to make better cars.

For the workers and retirees, GM could place them into a huge new safety net and retraining program. Remember the bail out of Chrysler?

However the quality of cars is paramount. According to Business Week, they must close 4 or 5 plants. Reduce the offerings to Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GM generic. The rest can go.

Assemblers must be aware as the Toyota work force of how they fit into the big picture and why the assembly line must be stopped if a poorly constructed car is built.

GM’s current plans according to BW won’t work.