GM CEO Ed Whitacre Recruiting Old AT&T Colleagues

Whitacre has been on a tear in recent months after GM lifer Fritz Henderson was fired as CEO over continuing turmoil at GM. While competitor Ford Motor (F) is on a roll and can seemingly do no wrong, GM is still (still) in shambles. While it will never regain its top-of-the-world status ever again (too late for that), GM will develop into a viable automotive competitor with a shark like Whitacre at the helm (even temporarily as a permanent CEO search is still ongoing). After re-organizing GM's executive levels, Whitacre has now changed the automaker's government relations and public-policy team with people he knows have a proven track record.

GM's next five years will be as interesting to watch as anything in American business history. A company that rose so high, was blinded in so many ways and then fell so hard is rare in the scale of a company like GM. Just like Michael Dell did in 2007 at the company he founded, a bunch of new blood was brought in to try and change just about everything, including an old vision that was no longer relevant. Whitacre's pals will be leading the charge as GM digs itself out of the grave it's resting in and tries to become somewhat relevant again.