Rick Wagoner
Rick Wagoner
George Richard "Rick" Wagoner, Jr.is an American businessman and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Wagoner resigned as Chairman and CEO at General Motors on March 29, 2009, at the request of the White House. The latter part of Wagoner's tenure as CEO of General Motors found him under heavy criticism as the market valuation of GM went down by more than 90% and the company lost more than $82 billion USD. This led to his being...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinessman
Date of Birth9 February 1953
CountryUnited States of America
History shows you don't know what the future brings.
As we look at the responsibilities we have to a broad range of constituents, as we look at what we need to do to make the business successful, as we look at our businesses around the world, we think there are significant costs to bankruptcy. We don't think it's a good option.
I'm like Sergeant Schultz, I know nothing. We are trying to share ideas around the world. We don't just come up with a great idea in Brazil and ignore it in the rest of the world.
I'm not sure we think it's a win to talk about what you're taking out.
I remember very clearly at the first budget review having a pretty direct conversation with the head of manufacturing... We began to get huge improvements in productivity and responsiveness. I got a chance to see that firsthand.
Most of the model consolidation we've done is behind us. There will be some fine tuning.
Generally, cars were not built to sit on dealer lots. It encourages the wrong kind of behavior in the whole system.
Jerry brings years of business experience and knowledge of the automotive industry to the GM board. We are pleased to welcome him to our Board.
I've given no thought to anything but turning the business around, ... I wasn't brought up to run and hide when things get tough. I'm convinced that's the way that things get righted.
All of our business units except GM North America are on or above track, and that has the extreme attention of us all. Progress is moving in the right direction ... but we still have more work to do.
Our fate is going to be determined in the next three to five years on getting this business in the U.S. turned around and profitable,
I've actually been saying I don't think anybody makes any money on hybrids, but that's not an accurate statement. Our bus hybrids can make money sometimes.
That's about what it was in 2004. We're not exactly sure about 2005, but we don't think it will be any different than last year, or what it has been in 2002, 2003 and 2004,
The industry sales mix is shifting away from the larger, higher-profit vehicles, even pickups, ... reflects too much reliance on those products for profitability.