Perhaps Mary Barra deserves her nearly $30 million annual compensation after all. Name another CEO who has successfully played two U.S. presidents to her company’s advantage.
Business
Why Bob Lutz Still Matters
Bob Lutz’s ‘Car Guys vs. Bean Counters’ is the most inspiring book on leadership I’ve ever read.
Here’s why.
The CEO Marshmallow Test
Nearly 60 years ago, Stanford researchers asked children to choose between one marshmallow now or two later.
Indications are that most CEOs of American companies would have grabbed the first marshmallow.
Tesla’s Elon Musk, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, and Amazon’s Andy Jassy are among the rare U.S. business leaders managing their companies with long-term horizons.
CEOs and the $4.8T Looting of Corporate America
Corporate America has spent more than $4.8 trillion buying back its own stock since 2018.
CEOs say buybacks signal confidence because they believe their companies’ shares are undervalued.
Then why are so many executives selling their own stock while their companies are buying it?
Ford, the UAW, and a ‘Stolen’ $1.95 Cookie
Veteran automotive journalist Phoebe Wall Howard recently uncovered the disheartening story of an experienced Ford factory electrician who was fired after being falsely accused of stealing a $1.95 cookie from the plant commissary. Howard’s reporting burst my bubble about Ford’s leadership and reaffirmed my dim view of the UAW.
Howard’s prodigious reporting deserves amplification.
The Marketing Tragedy of Ford’s Mustang Mach-E
Ford’s Mexican-made Mustang Mach-E has muscled its way big time onto the roads of my west Los Angeles neighborhood. For years I rarely saw the vehicle, which first went on sale in December 2020, but these days they’re everywhere, in some pretty sweet color schemes, I must add. I saw…
Sharon Leite: The Vitamin Shoppe’s Unsung CEO
In a not-so-long-ago era, my recent experience at The Vitamin Shoppe in Santa Monica would not have been a blog-worthy experience. Once upon a time it was common to walk into a retail store and engage with someone who was well versed in the company’s products and cared enough to…
VW’s 100,000 Job Cuts: BCG’s Fingerprints
It speaks volumes about the corporate media that to better understand antisemitism, growing wage disparity and labor unrest, and the declining state of the global automotive industry, I’m increasingly drawn to the World Socialist Web Site. The corporate media covers politics and business through the prism of its business owners—that’s…
Misguided CEOs With AI Egg on Their Faces
You can’t make this stuff up! Ford CEO Jim Farley last October made headlines prognosticating that “artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.” He opined that “AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind.” Given that Farley’s mistaken embrace of electric…
Munitions Mary and GM’s Weapons of War
GM CEO Mary Barra’s ability to reinvent herself rivals that of a career politician switching platforms on the campaign trail. First there was “No More Crappy Cars Mary,” a promise she made on CNBC when she oversaw the automaker’s new product development. Then there was “Mechanic Mary,” a moniker she…