Big Three CEOs Stage PR Comeback?
By Scott Reeves Dec 02, 2008 12:00 pm
Leaving the private jets in Detroit for second round of bailout pleas.
In November, the CEOs of General Motors (GM), Ford (F) and Chrysler flew to Washington in private jets to beg Uncle Sam for a $25 billion handout.
Oops. You'd think it might be smart to brush up on your poor-boy act before jangling the tin cup before Congress. Well, these guys are smart; they finally caught on.
Alan Mulally, Ford's honcho, plans to drive about 10 hours to Washington from Detroit in a gas-electric hybrid vehicle for the second round of testimony today. (With luck, it won't be a Toyota (TM) Prius.) GM and Chrysler said that their top dogs won't fly in private jets this time, but didn't disclose how they'd get to Washington.
Saturday Night Live spoofed the executives in a skit after they flew to Washington in 3 different corporate jets to tell Congress how badly they needed the dough. That rabbit punch to the solar plexus may have helped the CEOs see the error of their ways, because their in-house advisors somehow didn't see the public-relations catastrophe coming.
The automakers are scheduled to present their revised plans for use of the bailout funds today. That's about as reassuring as knowing that members of Congress will be evaluating them.
The automakers are also scheduled to report November sales today. They're likely to be dismal thanks to the credit crunch and are almost certain to be used to underscore the need for the bailout.
Chrysler and GM say they'll run out of money within months unless Uncle Sam forks over the bucks. Ford warns that it's likely to fall dangerously low in cash in the second half of 2009. They're not eager to talk about reorganizing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The Washington Post reports that Chrysler will propose that Detroit's 3 automakers collaborate on the development of advanced technology cars.
"That technology would then be transferred over to the auto companies," Chrysler CEO Robert L. Nardelli told the Senate Banking Committee last month. "It would make the $25 billion go further. It would be more cost-effective. If it became a wholly owned affiliate, you can get private equity to invest in it and then market that."
Such lofty plans are likely to be obscured by the mystery mode of transportation selected by GM and Chrysler executives to travel to Washington.
With any luck, they won't travel on horseback - not unless they want the Environmental Protection Agency to note the piles of horse exhaust they've left in the street.
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2008-12-02 12:16:37
Business As Usual
Management the American auto industry way.
So they are back again, for more money. But it's always the same story.
Let's look at the Saturn story.
Saturn was created to create a competitive American car, and be something new and innovative. And it was for a while.
The Saturn SL1,2's were actually very good cars. People loved them. They were reliable (a friend had an SL2 whose clutch lasted 200K miles, and the engine still had factory compression at 220K miles. The only "early failure" was the alternator at 170K miles). The car actually got 30 mpg.
But then some executive decided that once they had a good thing going, it was time to "milk it". If you cut quality, you can temporarily boost profits. And then management looks good for a while. Long enough to earn big bonuses, and to retire with a nice package. So what if the division goes down, and the original innovative vision is lost. Saturn has never been the same.
This is just an example of the cycle the American auto industry seems to go thru. They can innovate, they can produce great products. But then it's business as usual, and everything gets mismanaged.
So they are back again, for more money. But it's always the same story.
Let's look at the Saturn story.
Saturn was created to create a competitive American car, and be something new and innovative. And it was for a while.
The Saturn SL1,2's were actually very good cars. People loved them. They were reliable (a friend had an SL2 whose clutch lasted 200K miles, and the engine still had factory compression at 220K miles. The only "early failure" was the alternator at 170K miles). The car actually got 30 mpg.
But then some executive decided that once they had a good thing going, it was time to "milk it". If you cut quality, you can temporarily boost profits. And then management looks good for a while. Long enough to earn big bonuses, and to retire with a nice package. So what if the division goes down, and the original innovative vision is lost. Saturn has never been the same.
This is just an example of the cycle the American auto industry seems to go thru. They can innovate, they can produce great products. But then it's business as usual, and everything gets mismanaged.
2008-12-02 12:22:22
No jets?
Not this time but it is too late, they did the damage the last time.
They will be viewed as leopards who don't change spots despite travelling by other means this time.
The fact is they had to be TOLD they should not have come in private jets, what other cost savings things that they should have spotted but didn't and probably why the companies are in the mess they are in now..
Far too lazy and comfortable with fat salaries for sitting back and hardly thinking about the companies, just counting their own money piles
They will be viewed as leopards who don't change spots despite travelling by other means this time.
The fact is they had to be TOLD they should not have come in private jets, what other cost savings things that they should have spotted but didn't and probably why the companies are in the mess they are in now..
Far too lazy and comfortable with fat salaries for sitting back and hardly thinking about the companies, just counting their own money piles
2008-12-02 13:50:00
Here I go Lamenting again.
I was thinking of my first day at work on a ranch when I was 8 years old. After doing my farm chores at home I walked two miles to work put in ten hours of hard work then walked two miles home and did my evening chores. My pay was 2 dollars a day from the ranch and room and board at home cost me half my wages. A month later I got a 50% pay raise. I worked hard for my money. 50 years later I am still working on being able to save my first million dollars so that I can have something to retire on. I am frugal but just not very lucky in this boom and bust economy through all these years. This last bubble to burst put soap in my eyes and washed out the last of any empathy I had for politics and conglomerates and you ungodly rich folk.
Its really hard to feel good about going to work for my token wage when I see baseball pitchers making 10.000.00 a pitch Or Brad and Jolene getting several million just for the first pictures of their new born. Or some CEO who is pulling down hundreds of millions a year while begging from the Government for a hand out after he has fleeced his own company. I could spend days listing the inequities of life but you know most of them already.
Fifty years of working hard and I'm still trying to bank my first million. Me and 95% of the rest of those hard working Americans.
Checkmate you ffffers. Go piss up a rope. My best expression these days comes from my middle finger. I can only afford to feel sorry for myself these days. The last thing I need is for my government go around dispersing financial empathy to the conglomerates in an effort to bail them out for all the things they did wrong at my expense.
Have a wonderful day
JPM
I was thinking of my first day at work on a ranch when I was 8 years old. After doing my farm chores at home I walked two miles to work put in ten hours of hard work then walked two miles home and did my evening chores. My pay was 2 dollars a day from the ranch and room and board at home cost me half my wages. A month later I got a 50% pay raise. I worked hard for my money. 50 years later I am still working on being able to save my first million dollars so that I can have something to retire on. I am frugal but just not very lucky in this boom and bust economy through all these years. This last bubble to burst put soap in my eyes and washed out the last of any empathy I had for politics and conglomerates and you ungodly rich folk.
Its really hard to feel good about going to work for my token wage when I see baseball pitchers making 10.000.00 a pitch Or Brad and Jolene getting several million just for the first pictures of their new born. Or some CEO who is pulling down hundreds of millions a year while begging from the Government for a hand out after he has fleeced his own company. I could spend days listing the inequities of life but you know most of them already.
Fifty years of working hard and I'm still trying to bank my first million. Me and 95% of the rest of those hard working Americans.
Checkmate you ffffers. Go piss up a rope. My best expression these days comes from my middle finger. I can only afford to feel sorry for myself these days. The last thing I need is for my government go around dispersing financial empathy to the conglomerates in an effort to bail them out for all the things they did wrong at my expense.
Have a wonderful day
JPM
2008-12-02 14:33:31
The Ville
Jim,
Keep reading the 'Ville.
I have found the lack of financial education in this country appalling.
And by that I mean that it should start in 6th grade. It took me years of going out of my way to take extra finance classes, to try to get a handle on all the complexities of the system. You can be an expert in one part of the system, and not know all the details of the rest.
In my opinion, education is the only defense in a boom/bust economy.
Minyanville is a great refresher course, and helps get the brain thinking about the big picture. It is great that they predicted the crash, and even explained why it would happen. The T.V. guys are just entertainers or summarizers (just summarize what they have been hearing, no original thought or analysis)
I try to ignore how much a sports star is making, by remembering that the odds of becoming a sports star are extremely thin. So I didn't think that was ever going to be the way for me. Also remember that only the cheating, lying CEOs are the ones who make it on T.V.
I can't believe they are all corrupt.
Keep reading the 'Ville.
I have found the lack of financial education in this country appalling.
And by that I mean that it should start in 6th grade. It took me years of going out of my way to take extra finance classes, to try to get a handle on all the complexities of the system. You can be an expert in one part of the system, and not know all the details of the rest.
In my opinion, education is the only defense in a boom/bust economy.
Minyanville is a great refresher course, and helps get the brain thinking about the big picture. It is great that they predicted the crash, and even explained why it would happen. The T.V. guys are just entertainers or summarizers (just summarize what they have been hearing, no original thought or analysis)
I try to ignore how much a sports star is making, by remembering that the odds of becoming a sports star are extremely thin. So I didn't think that was ever going to be the way for me. Also remember that only the cheating, lying CEOs are the ones who make it on T.V.
I can't believe they are all corrupt.
2008-12-02 20:27:58
Sat Night Live
should be paying these guys for skit material.
I believe our congress is paying too high a price for time, given that only time and price will fix the broken. Can we not let the system fall and then fund the most promising parts on the other side? Dragging this thing on and on and on and.... well you get my meaning. I believe the GOV interventions are only stopping the market from finding the bottom we need to get to.
Oh well, I might as well enjoy Sat Night Live's take on it.
I believe our congress is paying too high a price for time, given that only time and price will fix the broken. Can we not let the system fall and then fund the most promising parts on the other side? Dragging this thing on and on and on and.... well you get my meaning. I believe the GOV interventions are only stopping the market from finding the bottom we need to get to.
Oh well, I might as well enjoy Sat Night Live's take on it.
2008-12-03 10:09:21
Amen
As Jim said, the latest b.s. from Washington and Wall Street has been the proverbial straw that broke the camels back for many average Americans.
Illegal immigration, welfare, deficit spending, greed, excess, and now outright theft of our savings and taxing us and our children into indentured servitude.
Bend over the middle class and sooner or later you will have civil war. I'm not holding my ankles any longer.
Todd has a great perspective and thinking positive is the only way to go. At some point, however, we have to demand ethics and accountability or we'll all just be spitting in the wind.
I watched the coverage last night and all I heard from Politicians, the big 3 CEO's, and pundits was the same "Blah, blah, blah" I've heard for thirty years. It's a steaming crock of b.s. "Restructure" "Protect the taxpayer" "Recover by 2nd Quarter of (insert year)" "Too big to fail", etc.
Wall Street and Washington have lost the trust of the backbone of this nation. NO TRUST...I repeat...NO TRUST.
When there is no trust in a relationship it is OVER.
Cheers,
Eric
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