General Motors Corporation: Communicating a New Vision for Survival

Mr. Wagoner Goes to Washington November 19, 2008: General Motors appears before House Financial Services Committee Presents arguments to receive loans to support operations through market crisis. “We do not expect operations to generate sufficient cash flow to fund our obligations as they come due.” – GM, Nov. 7 ▫What were the causes of the company’s liquidity crisis?

Economic Factors Housing Market Collapse ▫House prices enter 20 consecutive month decline beginning August Banking Crisis ▫90% of new cars purchased with financing. Surge in Fuel Prices ▫Crude Oil reaches $147 per barrel in June U.S. Consumer Confidence Decline ▫CCI falls 60% from October 2006.

Auto-Industry Trends Sales Slump ▫World car sales drop 24% from the previous year. Growth in Emerging Markets ▫Sales in China increase from 2 million in 2001 to 8.9 million in Alternative-Fuel ▫Sales of Hybrid gas-electric vehicles increases 35% in Dealership Reduction ▫NADA forecast: 900 of 20,770 U.S. dealers will go out of business in 2008.

The History of General Motors Rise to Market Dominance ▫First Company to reach $1 billion annual income in ▫ Alfred Sloan Management. Union Relations ▫Benefits add another $1,400 per vehicle. ▫Union to take over health-care trust in Rick Wagoner Tenure: Present ▫Share Price drops from $75.75 to $2.79. ▫Electric Vehicles; Expansion into China.

Compounding the Errors Late to the hybrid and fuel-efficient market; Unresponsive to consumer demand; Over-emphasis on SUVs to circumvent CAFÉ; Illiquidity of GMAC; Dissolution of core identity; Historical concessions to union labor.

Government Bailout vs. Chapter 11 GM insists Chapter 11 will destroy consumer confidence. ▫Warranty issue ▫Parts issue Loan will deter domino effect. Bailout will speed up turnaround process.

The Congressional Presentation Recitation of the audiences that GM represents. Time-lagged perception of who GM is. Production progress in terms of flex-fuel and electric cars. Successful restructuring that couldn’t foresee the global downturn. Further downsizing being implemented to improve GM’s liquidity by $20 billion. Implications of potential failure.

Unending Chain of Stakeholders Internal Management UAW GMAC Non-Union Workers Car Companies, both domestic and abroad Retail Dealers Rental Fleets External GM Retirees Customers News Media Government Officials Environmentalists Investors Taxpayers Suppliers

Reactions to General Motors Plea Generally hostile. Media played up the private jet issue. Initially, public was found to be anti-bailout. (Rasmussen poll showed 49% against, 38% for, with 13% undecided). Steve Harris: “For a couple of days you were afraid to turn on the TV or open up a newspaper.”

Delivering the Message How do you advertise when you’re broke? Utilization of third party support. GM facts and fiction sheet on Internet. Low tech, traditional approaches. Lack of blogging sites by company.

The Fallout: Rejection Government Bridge-Loan Proposal Rejected ▫“Until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money.” – Nancy Pelosi General Motors given two weeks to establish a plan for viability