| First quarter report shows that the sales of the | | | | assembly of Volvo engine parts. |
| Toyota Motor Corp. have swiftly surpassed that of | | | | On another perspective, GM is reaching out more for |
| the General Motors Corp.'s. This is why critics in the | | | | input, and even putting a decision on generating a |
| industry are expecting GM to double its efforts to hold | | | | concept vehicle up to a vote. "This is a team game, |
| on to its crown as the world's largest automaker. | | | | and to get the team functioning at its most efficient |
| The excitement continues and the thrill leaves | | | | level, you have to have all the players playing to their |
| enthusiasts and critics astonished. Is Toyota about to | | | | strengths," GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said before |
| grab the finest title in the auto industry which was | | | | introducing a set of new concepts for mini-cars. |
| safeguarded by GM in the past three decades? | | | | Finding it hard to choose which from the three models |
| Texan Ross Perot, during his brief stint on GM's board | | | | should debut at the New York Auto Show (NYAS), |
| of directors, once described the automaker as | | | | GM decided to show all the cars and then let the public |
| "isolated and insulated" from the American driving | | | | vote on which should see production. "If that means a |
| public. Just about two decades later, amid a massive | | | | great idea is born in one spot and develops into reality |
| overhaul at the world's largest automaker, signs are | | | | somewhere else," Lutz said. "So be it." The new set of |
| starting to come into view that GM is shedding that | | | | product lines is set to debut next year at the Detroit |
| impeccable and domineering style of management. | | | | Auto Show. |
| GM is taking a more flowing and unfastened approach | | | | GM's shift is gradually penetrating into the market. |
| to doing business in an industry it once ruled. This is | | | | Some say it started nearly a decade ago, when GM |
| because the company was jolted into action by | | | | adopted a team approach to vehicle development that |
| unprecedented sales doldrums and market share | | | | has people from various departments coming together |
| declines resulting to overwhelming losses. Experts in | | | | to make important decisions. The shift was reckoned |
| the industry are now called on to guide top executives | | | | from the time when managers sent orders down the |
| in making critical decisions. GM's pool of designers is | | | | ranks. |
| now given a wider leeway and freedom to whip up | | | | Since Lutz the product czar took on the role in 2001, |
| product lines with no advance approval from the top | | | | designers at GM have talked about feeling more |
| executives. And, in a first for GM, the public could have | | | | valued and empowered. But it has been only recently |
| final say in choosing a new vehicle to be sold | | | | that the shift in thinking has begun to trickle down into |
| worldwide. | | | | GM's public face - its products, marketing and ads. |
| "The company that I hired into no longer exists - which | | | | "There's a lot less Detroit tunnel vision than there used |
| is a good thing," said John Manoogian, the design | | | | to be at GM," said David Healy, a Burnham Securities |
| director for Cadillac, who started his GM career 30 | | | | auto analyst. "You can see it in the new models that |
| years ago in the now-defunct Oldsmobile division. | | | | are coming out. And that's what's important." |
| "There's a new sense of where we are and what we | | | | The ideas for the vehicles, which the automaker would |
| have to go to. We have senior managers saying, 'You | | | | not tackle, were drawn from a small team of |
| guys show us what you can do.'" | | | | designers over at Cadillac. Traditionally, designers get |
| In the past decades, the supremacy of GM cannot be | | | | directions to make products based on a market need |
| overemphasized. As a fact, its influence all over the | | | | or hole in GM's lineup. In this case, the team branched |
| global auto industry made it rule the longest. But in the | | | | out and came up with some clay models of vehicles |
| past few years, the supremacy seems to flicker to | | | | they thought GM should build. |
| make its foreign rivals even stronger in its place of | | | | Soon after the models were made, the designers got |
| dominion. GM's plight may have gotten ominous enough | | | | word that Lutz and CEO Rick Wagoner were coming |
| to stimulate some actual changes in that manner of | | | | down to the Warren design center to take a look at |
| thinking. Some of this is apparent in the attitude of | | | | them. "We brought them out on the patio, and they just |
| upper management. With the overhauling of market | | | | said, 'Hey, let's do this,'" Manoogian said. "For me that |
| strategies, everyone is more able to offer suggestions | | | | was the epiphany - when the light bulb went on that |
| and question company strategy. Same thing with what | | | | we were doing things differently. |
| the Ford Motor Co. is eliciting in the manufacture and | | | | |