LivMint.com: Can GM succeed as ‘Government Motors’?
Can GM succeed as ‘Government Motors’?
With the US government expected to hold as much as 72.5% of the new firm that would emerge from bankruptcy, analysts say a big question is whether GM can concentrate on the difficult auto marketplace. “The tricky part is to leave day-to-day management to the executives of the company,” said Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive at auto research firm Edmunds.com. For the government, he said: “the temptation is to influence product decisions based on political considerations instead of market considerations, and that’s always a danger.” Anwyl said it is too soon to tell how the matter will be handled by the administration of President Barack Obama, which has pledged to get out of the business as soon as GM gets back on its feet. David Cole, chairman of the Michigan-based Center for Automotive Research, said the government officials “are smart, dedicated people, but they can’t learn the key issues of this industry in a short time.”
