At G.M., Innovation Sacrificed to Profits

[unknownroad]

Originally Posted by pauldun170

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/bu...tors.html?_r=1
Mr. Casesa said that pattern stemmed from the fact that so many of the company’s top executives had a background in finance, not in engineering and designing cars and trucks.

Not to mention, coming from industries like household goods, which are marketing and brand-driven, rather than innovation or quality-driven.

For the last half-century, virtually all of G.M.’s chief executives, including Mr. Wagoner, have come from its financial side, which has judged most initiatives based on whether they will be profitable.

And haven't they just done a great job of that!

Worries over profits has also stifled innovation at G.M. Engineers actually started work on minivans a decade before Chrysler popularized them in the 1980s, said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., and the son of a former G.M. president, who has advised G.M. for years. But G.M.’s finance staff refused to give the go-ahead.

Hell, an argument could be made that they'd already done work on it a decade before *that* with the Corvair Greenbrier, but the market wasn't ready for it