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
Rick Wagoner quotes about
continues financial performance quite
Our financial performance continues to be quite disappointing,
befall capacity china chinese continues deserve flip growth guess japan learned lessons meet silly strong threat
I think it's going to be silly not to take the competitive threat seriously. If we haven't learned any lessons from Japan and Korea, we deserve the things that befall us, ... On the flip side, the growth in China continues to be so strong that our guess is that most of the capacity in China will be used to meet Chinese needs.
continued expand gm growth key markets notable sales successes
GM had some notable sales successes as we continued to expand in key growth markets around the world in 2005.
competition continues demand efforts eliminate industry intensely lower mixed pressures price reinforce results step strong territory venture waste
These results reinforce the need to step up our efforts to eliminate waste and lower costs, ... The industry continues to venture into new territory -- near-record demand mixed with unprecedented price pressures and intensely strong competition on all fronts.
action benefits companies conceived continue costs decades difficult explosive face foreseen global greatest high increasing inflation necessary number recent rise rising similar simply taken
This is a difficult but necessary decision, and it was made only after the greatest deliberation. A number of other U.S. companies have already taken similar action in the face of these rising costs and increasing global competition. In particular, U.S. health-care costs continue to rise at high rates. When these benefits were conceived decades ago, no one could have foreseen the explosive cost inflation that we have been experiencing in recent years. These costs are simply not sustainable.
bring continue existing facilities foundation future global pivotal plants played processes provide role
Don has played a pivotal role in strengthening GM's global manufacturing competitiveness, ... His contributions provide an important foundation for our future as we continue to bring these world-class manufacturing processes to new plants and existing facilities around the world.
asked board career chairman continues develop fritz gm grow hope identify job jobs logical took
That's silly. Fritz took the CFO job because I asked him to, and the board approved. It was a logical progression in his career and I hope Fritz continues to develop and grow. One of my most important jobs as chairman of GM is to identify and grow talent.
allow building business continued critical forward further phase position preserve relationship
Our relationship is strong, and we look forward to our continued partnership. This transaction will allow us to preserve our business relationship, while further building up GM's already significant liquidity position during this critical phase of our turnaround.
pass toyota
I think we'll probably pass Toyota in the U.S. on the workers-per-vehicle metric.
brings business experience gm industry jerry knowledge pleased welcome
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.
american-businessman began chance clearly conversation direct head huge review
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.
last months nine north turnaround
Over the last nine months we have been aggressively implementing our North American turnaround plan.
business determined fate five next three turned
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,
car economic europe growth market overall robust
Overall economic growth in Europe hasn't been robust and the car market hasn't been robust,