Obama appoints car CEO who knows nothing about cars
The Obama administration recently appointed Edward Whitacre as the new CEO of General Motors. He was previously CEO of AT&T.
“I don’t know anything about cars,” Whitacre, 67, said yesterday in an interview after his appointment. “A business is a business, and I think I can learn about cars. I’m not that old, and I think the business principles are the same.” (Bloomberg)
We are living in Wonderland. Up is down. In is out.
In a normal world, even if the newly appointed CEO of a company really didn’t know cars, he sure as shit wouldn’t admit it so candidly in public. He would drone on about his executive experience or dodge the question. So why would Ed Whitacre say something so irresponsible, so detrimental to the reputation of the company?
One reason is that GM’s recent bankruptcy caused the NY Stock Exchange to suspend trading of GM’s common equity, so a stock market plunge was not a problem.
Whitacre’s statement is, unfortunately, a horrendous second place to the real problem here. Barack Obama appointed a non-car guy to run a car company. Perhaps the White House has a rational defense for the decision…
“The White House said Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally’s move from planemaker Boeing Co. shows that success doesn’t hinge on automotive experience.”
Uh, Mr. Gibbs, Boeing makes planes and plane engines. Experience with running a company that makes jet engines might come in handy for running a company that makes car engines. AT&T is a telephone company. The analogy doesn’t fit.
It takes some amazing job security to admit such ignorance publicly. I don’t know if Obama regrets appointing Whitacre only to have him say he didn’t know anything about the product his company sells, but he should.