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General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM) CEO Rick Wagoner should get some lessons in motivational speaking if he wants to fire up the carmaker's workforce to beat back Toyota Motor Corp.'s (NYSE:TM) challenge to its number one position in the market.

When the AP asked what he would do if Toyota becomes number one, he replied: "It won't be a happy day for me, but I've lost basketball games before in my life. You get ready and you learn and you go back the next day, and that's what we'll do. We're going to fight to keep the position, and if one day we lose it, we'll fight to get it back."

Wow, those are certainly not very inspiring words. Can you imagine if coach told his team that he wouldn't be "happy" if they lost? I hope Wagoner is more persuasive in private. A Toyota spokesman is equally disingenous when he told the wire service that, " a perceived sales challenge for global leadership is not something we're even thinking about." Toyota has already overtaken DaimlerChrylser (NYSE:DCX) and is now the third-largest automaker.

It annoys me when business executives deny the obvious. There are winners and losers in the real world, where people scratch and claw their way to the top. Toyota's challenge to General Motors is serious. The Japanese automaker is vowing to produce 9.42 million vehicles in 2008, exceeding the 9.2 million GM is estimated to have made in 2006, the AP said. Wagoner wouldn't reveal GM's product targets but said the company has the capacity to make more than 9.42 million cars, the wire service said.

Wagoner expects the market in North America to be healthier this year. He also says the company is hoping consumers will be attracted by the quality of its products rather than be steep discounts.

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