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Ed Whitacre's Postcard From The Auto Bailout
Ed Whitacre freely admits "I knew nothing about cars. Zero." Which made the out-of-the-blue phonecall from
Steven Rattner all the more strange. But he does know management, and that's why Team Auto reached out, because
General Motors management was all kinds of bad, and that needed to change now that taxpayer money was at stake.
In his memoir
American Turnaround, Ed Whitacre gives his side of the reinvigoration of General Motors. It's another slice in the ongoing dissection of What Just Happened in the American auto business, and Whitacre sets up the story by asking, "How could I even consider taking the reins of a company whose business I knew nothing about?"
The book is written like a chat with Ed Whitacre himself; the words on the page almost twanging. The plain, direct language make the 271 pages of
American Turnaround go quickly. The book was released
February 12th, and as with any memoir, be sure to pick up a few grains of salt or look into some other perspectives so you can form your own opinions about the history that's now being written down.
There will be critics who write off
American Turnaroundas a vanity piece written by a typical big-business type adept at tooting his own horn. A memoir by its very nature is going to be filled with a lot of I, Me, Mine, and the inherent inertia in the car business will see Whitacre accused of trying to take credit for things set in motion by the leadership he kicked out. The criticisms might be missing the point, or worse, misinterpreting. Whitacre didn't swashbuckle in like, say, Bob Lutz, brimming with ideas about product development. Instead, he came in and looked at the way the business of GM was run, and according to his account, it wasn't firing on all cylinders. That seems to square with other reports, regardless of what you believe caused it.
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American Turnaround originally appeared on
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Review: American Turnaround
