The Wall Street Journal was good enough to humiliate General Motors (NYSE: GM) CEO Rick Wagoner by pointing out that he still has his job. The company's share price is down almost 85% since he took over. The newspaper writes that Mr. "Wagoner's decision a few years ago to tilt GM's product mix more toward trucks and SUVs isn't looking good."
Fair enough. But there are two critical elements to Wagoner still having his corner office. One is that the rest of the US car industry is as bad off as GM, maybe worse. The other is that no CEO in his right mind would leave a good job to take over GM. Boeing (NYSE: BA) exec, Alan Mulally, moved to Ford (NYSE: F) as the head man and he must regret the decision every day.
Wagoner is part of the "dumbing down" of the American CEO. If the man can't do well, blame it on the industry. That makes it seem that individual companies are powerless to make decisions that will put them ahead of the competition, even in tough markets.
Tell that to the guys at Honda (NYSE: HMC).
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-02-2008 @ 10:41AM
Jack said...
Reading about the troubled CEO's, I often think, what if we paid our US. President, 25 million bucks a year, would free housing, food, transportation, a life time pension with health care and secret service for life, be enought to interest some talented manager type, not just politicians to take a look at the job.??
7-02-2008 @ 11:24AM
gumbo koontz said...
CEOs or managements are increasingly attentive toward employees away from shareholders with a few exceptions. Unions usually hold the sways but CEOs could do little but hope that shareholders wouldnt notice. Environmentalists or regulators is another sway. Shareholders are generally pushed out the windows. It is commonly painless to file bankruptcies and wipe out shareholders without any backlashes. Yeah, there is court lawsuits by shareholders, but shareholders still fail to organize and fight for rightful returns like in dividends if not in capital gains. Shareholders just dont trust or agree with eachother to the advantages of CEOs and unions.
7-02-2008 @ 11:26AM
gumbo koontz said...
saving account depositers are far better protected than shareholders and this is flat plain wrong!
7-02-2008 @ 11:27AM
gumbo koontz said...
Shareholders are expected to accept risks and we are placing too much risks on shareholders lately... When will shareholders start revolting??? anyone??
7-02-2008 @ 11:29AM
gumbo koontz said...
Shareholders are expected to take risks and we place layers and layers of risks on shareholders unnneedlessly. When politicians talk about the shortcomings of Social Security, they mean for employees not shareholders. Employees get contributions from employers while shareholders are pretty much on own .
7-02-2008 @ 11:57AM
Connie said...
How does he keep his job? How does he keep getting those million dollar plus bonuses each year? This guy is a looser from the get go!
7-02-2008 @ 11:32AM
gumbo koontz said...
Shareholders are meaninglessly told , warned , cautioned, downgraded or upgraded, damned to accept unreasonable levels of risks with line, hook and sinkers, yet shareholders are not complaining... That is how rich got richer forever... Shareholders got to wise up someday..
7-02-2008 @ 11:46AM
gumbo koontz said...
Big Oil companies benefitted greatly from Wagoneer's stupidity on SUV and PickUps. Why dont Big Oil offer $10000 to buyers of unsold SUVs and PickUps and save GM and Ford ?? Tundras, Titans, and other non American guzzlers not eligible. Why dont Wagoneer walk to Big Oil with a hat in hand?? Or General Electric can take over for cheap??
7-02-2008 @ 11:52AM
gumbo koontz said...
I was somewhat puzzled at the popularity of SUVs and PickUps over the years, but I assumed that horiziontal drilling for spent oil reserves to boost productioin would be able to supply enough oil to satisfy SUVs and PickUps for a long time to come. Stories were told that spent oil reserves still has about two third left untapped unless drilled horizionally. It sounded to me like we still have plenty left for a long time. I think it is more to do with our dollar devaluation that pushed oil prices up a lot plus a little excessive speculation on the floors. Our dollar will devalue a lot more if GM and Ford file bankruptcies. We may be buying as low as 50 yens down from 100 now. Everyone is downgrading our companies but not our almighty dollar! How come?? Our dollar will be downgraded !!
7-02-2008 @ 11:53AM
gumbo koontz said...
I was somewhat puzzled at the popularity of SUVs and PickUps over the years, but I assumed that horiziontal drilling for spent oil reserves to boost productioin would be able to supply enough oil to satisfy SUVs and PickUps for a long time to come. Stories were told that spent oil reserves still has about two third left untapped unless drilled horizionally. It sounded to me like we still have plenty left for a long time. I think it is more to do with our dollar devaluation that pushed oil prices up a lot plus a little excessive speculation on the floors. Our dollar will devalue a lot more if GM and Ford file bankruptcies. We may be buying as low as 50 yens down from 100 now. Everyone is downgrading our companies but not our almighty dollar! How come?? Our dollar will be downgraded !!
7-02-2008 @ 11:59AM
gumbo koontz said...
Quite a big number of Americans are still clueless about the probabilities of GM and /or Ford filing for bankruptcy. They still had no idea as of this writing.... They must be thinking that GM and Ford will always be here as if they are owned by our govenment... This would be a big letdown for them when this happens and they would say that they had no idea or warning about that... Our media is busy scaring up shareholders of GM and Ford while going soft on viewers..
7-02-2008 @ 12:02PM
gumbo koontz said...
Ask Jay Leno if he thinks GM will go under. He is a car buff himself as you know it so well!
7-02-2008 @ 12:21PM
Bosco said...
Uh... Jack ... uh ... basically we do that already. Just look how Bill has cashed in, Jimma thinks he's the Messiah, and Algore KNOWS he (Algore, not Jimma) is. Hell Al has reaped 100 million on his Globaloney scam. This is a guy who couldn't identify busts of the countries founding fathers. So yea, they get paid and all the rest of it, except for housing (you think there will ever be another president living in a modest 2br again?) is standard issue for a prez. In fact check out the benefit packages for ONE term Congress critters. Furthermore *IF* the job didn't pay well, Congress or Prez, why do they expend so much money getting elected?
7-02-2008 @ 4:04PM
winslow said...
Management representing the interests of shareholders...this was the original theory we read about in business-school books. Evaluate many of the atrocities in corporations over the last 5-10 years to find this is not close to actual practice. Until we change our entire philosphy about business, government, and citizen rights...nothing will change.
7-02-2008 @ 7:56PM
manmor55 said...
I have worked for GM for 28 years. In that time span the one thing that has been a constant is that they have lost market share. Rick Wagoner is one of the worst. He is right up there with Roger Smith. Why do these idiots get bonuses? They keep blaming all the companys down falls on the union workers and will not take credit for their own mistakes. Wagoner got his bonus this year because he beet down the UAW. The way I see it the ball is in there court. These Idiots are not interested in making the stock holders money. They are only interested in themselves. Fire the Idiots at the top and make them responsible for all the sh t they have made.