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Steven Rattner: why I fired GM's CEO

Posted by Hootan Mahallati | October 26, 2009 | In gm news

Steven Rattner

Steven Rattner, Former Chief, US Treasury's Auto Task Force, was the man who led the auto industry's bailout. Not surprisingly, he was critisized for his lack of automotive industry experience, which he accepts in an interview with Fortune. More interestingly, he talks about why the auto task force team decided to remove former CEO Rick Wagoner from his perch.

Rattner points to several key factors that led to the decision. One is what he calls "perhaps the weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a major company." This comment is within the context of poorly thought-out PowerPoint decks the government received every time GM asked for more money.

In addition to burning through $34B of cash in a year and one quarter, GM's corporate culture shocked Rattner. He explains,

"The cultural deficiencies were equally stunning. At GM's Renaissance Center headquarters, the top brass were sequestered on the uppermost floor, behind locked and guarded glass doors. Executives housed on that floor had elevator cards that allowed them to descend to their private garage without stopping at any of the intervening floors (no mixing with the drones)."

Rattner expands to demonstrate how this culture was exhibited right at the top in Wagoner's person.

"In my relatively few interactions with chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, I found him to be likable, dedicated, and generally knowledgeable. But Rick set a tone of "friendly arrogance" that seemed to permeate the organization," says Rattner.

Click here to read the full Fortune article, including a video interview with Rattner.

[Source: Fortune]

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