Tractors GM CFO races to 'make a difference' before 'window' shuts

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DETROIT -- Dan Ammann wants it understood he's not one of the gray-suited "bean counters" who once dominated, and nearly destroyed, General Motors.

To drive home the point, the chief financial officer is ready to challenge the automaker's resurgent "car guys" on their own turf: a three-mile test track where his gray-metallic Corvette Z06 reaches a blistering 150 miles per hour.

Every lap is a message -- this is not the same hidebound finance department that almost ran the top U.S. automaker into the ground.

"You have to have a point of view on how the organization actually goes about making cars," Ammann said. "You've got to be out there and really immerse yourself in the business before you can make a difference."

The 40-year-old, former Wall Street banker acknowledges GM has further to push to change a corporate culture once marked by arrogance, insularity and bureaucracy that has stifled the company for decades.

And that's on top of such concerns as ongoing losses in Europe, slowing industry demand in China and GM's $134 billion in pension obligations at the end of 2011.

Some industry officials believe the issues are so entrenched the most likely scenario is GM never eliminates its underlying problems.

"They have not wrestled their management challenges to the ground," said Steve Rattner, the former head of the U.S. auto task force. "GM is making a lot of money. It's just not making quite as much as Ford on a percentage basis because it still has some inefficiencies that need to be wrung out."

Despite a record profit of $7.6 billion last year, GM's operating margin of 3.8 percent still trailed such rivals as Hyundai (10.4 percent),Volkswagen (7.1 percent) and Ford (5.4 percent).

The near collapse of GM and its U.S. government-led bankruptcy filing in 2009 put a spotlight on the failings of the finance team, which federal officials viewed as hapless during the reorganization.

In 2009, GM settled accounting charges with U.S. securities regulators related to multiple financial restatements dating back to 2000.

That was a far cry from the five decades starting in the late 1950s, during which seven of nine GM CEOs came up through the finance department.

Ammann, one of only about 30 GM executives certified to drive at high speeds at the company's Michigan track, is determined to restore the reputation of the money guys.

He has led a revamp of a department once considered the cradle of GM's chief executives, moving to simplify how success at GM is measured and the data used for decisions.

"We have a window of opportunity to bring some fundamental change to this company," he said, "and it's a relatively narrow window."

If Ammann, CEO Dan Akerson and other top officers fail, shareholders fear a repeat of mistakes that led to GM's $50 billion U.S. taxpayer bailout.

Get it right and GM remakes itself into a nimble, aggressive competitor, a process Akerson concedes his successor could inherit.



Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20120721/OEM02/307219998#ixzz21GUWcDBV
 
 
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