GM shuffles sales leaders for nd time in months ONN…tv
DETROIT AP When Ed Whitacre Jr took over as General Motors Co s CEO in December he told reporters that executives wouldn t have long to show results He meant it GM announced sweeping changes in its sales and marketing operations on Tuesday splitting the two functions after Whitacre combined them in December and shuffling executives across the company s operations Susan Docherty formerly vice president of U S sales and marketing will now head only marketing and Steve Carlisle who ran GM s Southeast Asia operations was named vice president of U S sales operations Both will report to North American President Mark Reuss who
said the move eliminates a layer of management between him and the customer The structure will allow people to focus exclusively on dealers and sales while others will focus on marketing Reuss said He said there was dissatisfaction with GM s results in the past three months although there were good things like sales staying on par with the industry despite shedding four brands Hummer Saturn Pontiac and Saab GM has great new vehicles but needs to do a better job of marketing them Reuss said We have got to accelerate success in North America he told reporters on a conference call I don t think we ve moved far enough fast enough At Chevrolet the company s largest brand GM kept Jim Campbell who had been brand general manager as marketing chief and added Alan Batey to head sales and service Batey most recently was president of GM s Holden operations in Australia At Cadillac Bryan Nesbitt will move from the brand s general manager position back to the design studio He ll be replaced by Don Butler who will be in charge of marketing and Kurt McNeil Butler rejoined the company from Inrix a Kirkland Wash based traffic research firm while McNeil was previously general sales manager of Chevrolet Brian Sweeney who had been Buick GMC general manager stays on in charge of sales and service at the brand while John Schwegman becomes head of marketing He had been Chevrolet product marketing director All the brand sales executives will report directly to Reuss while the marketing executives will report to Docherty The moves are a sign of Whitacre s impatience but may not be wise because it generally takes 12 to 18 months for people to become effective in their jobs said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld senior associate dean at the Yale School of Management Whitacre Sonnenfeld said is all about convincing people to buy GM s products rather than improving them over the long term This is an illusion of take charge as opposed to actually working on strategic visions creating great product he said This is his I think extremely short term view
Tags: american president, asia operations, dissatisfaction, ed whitacre, general motors, gm, hummer, new vehicles, pontiac, president mark, reuss, s sales, saab, sales and marketing, sales operations, southeast asia, steve carlisle, susan docherty, sweeping changes, Uncategorized, will allow people
Add A Comment