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There are more women drivers in the U.S. than men. In 2011 50.5% of licensed drivers were women. This is an increase from the 39.6% figure in 1963, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Part of the reason for this is the decline in young men getting drivers licenses, and the larger share of older drivers with more women in that age group. Even though women still earn less than men the numbers are increasing, with women making 81 cents to every dollar made by men in 2012, increasing from 62 cents in 1979. In educaton levels achieved women are doing better- Labor Dept figures show 30% of women born in the early 1980's with bachelors degrees, and only 22% for men. That suggests their earning prospects will continue to increase. Studies by R.L. Polk show women prefer more fuel efficient cars. A study by RDA Group shows women buying the average new car in 2012 at a price 12% less than the average car bought by men. Only two of the top ten cars purchased by women in 2012 were U.S. brands- the Ford Escape at No.7 and the Chevy Equinox at No. 9. This shows that Ford, GM and Chrysler have more work to do to attract women customers....

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Hard hitting article by an expert in the field of manufacturing and the automobile industry. Problems facing GM and Ford in his view- Note the following: 1) The engineering system with chief engineer in charge of product, concurrent and simultaneous engineering. Better development system for new products at Toyota. 2) How to work with suppliers by leaving room for suppliers to make a profit while attacking every kind of waste jointly. 3) Hardest hitting point on the culture. GM and Ford have cultures that turn competent people into Dilberts. And noting that if ordinary people -Dilberts even- are put in a great business process they become great team players. 4) Customer Service at Lexus. Customers cheerfully pay more because they love the treatment. 5) Labor relations- Union and management know what does not make sense yet no accomodation has been reached, because their conversation has broken down. Womack's comments leave a lot to think about and reflects a feeling that seems to run outside of the midwest- that if GM and Ford can't get a grip on their problems and fix them other companies like Toyota can replace them. A sense that Toyota as a global company is as much of an American company as GM or Ford. ...

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GM will hasten plant closings as its cash situation deteriorates and it finds itself without access to credit, as the credit markets remain frozen in the global financial crisis that hit in late September. GM will hasten closing of Moraine, Ohio plant, Grand Rapids Stamping Plant to close December 2009, and Janesville, Wisconsin plant to close December 23, 2008. All 3 plants make parts for large and midsize pickup trucks. Accelerated plant closigs save money. The Janesville plant assembles GMC Yukon, Chevrolet Tahoe, and Chevrolet Suburban, all large SUV's. whos sales have fallen badly and precipitiously. And more than 40% of the parts produced at Grand Rapids went into large SUV's. Othe plant closings GM announced earlierinclude ending production of a truck lie in Toluca, Mexico, and ending production at an assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario. All are part of the shift to cars, smaller cars, and crossover vehicles to respond to changing consumer preferences after gas prices went above $4 a gallon. ...

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Best Buy's efforts in marketing to women customers to bridge the gap with stores such as Target that do a good job of targeting female customers.

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Was the deal with Cerberus to let it own a significant part of GMAC bad for GM, along with other decisions and missteps that led to disaster. The decision by GMAC to raise credit standards just when the full force of the credit squeeze was hitting financial markets has to have hurt GM sales, and aggravated a bad situation in which consumers first turned away from SUV's and trucks, which were big in GM's and also Detroit's product lineup, and then in November simply postponed purchases of automobiles. The November numbers coming in at over 40% below 2007 numbers for the same month, were a disaster for GM, making it necessary to turn to the government for help. Brian Johnson of Barclays Capital says GMAC financed just 1% of GM's sales in November compared with as much as 45% in a normal month. Thats huge for impact. And Cerberus appears to be responsible for the decision to raise the credit standards, and it has not acted in the best interests of GM but more in its own interests as a private equity firm. And its decisions have been heavily influenced by its souring investment in Chrysler, and its desire to extricate itself from Chrysler without putting in any more funds than it has absolutely need to put in. Now with government help to GMAC, the situation is being restored to where the credit standards are set at the minimum acceptable credit score of 621. Johnson of Barclays Capital estimates that with this lower score GMAC should be able to recapture about one third of its former loan volume, which considering that it had 45% of GM sales is only 15%. This still leaves GM in a bad situation compared to things before October 2008. And with the deteriorating unemployment situation in 2009 and further economic strain in 2009, this will not be enough for the uphill climb facing GM sales. ...

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GM and Ford are burning cash at a rapid rate. And the Energy Department says it is unlikely that any of the $25 billion in loans already approved for fuel eficiency retooling of plants will be disbursed by the end of 2008. GM used up $6.9 billion in cash in the third quarter of 2008 leaving cash reserves at $16.2 billion. It needs $11-$14 billion to fund ongoing operations. Ford burned through $7.7 billion in cash in the third quarter of 2008, leaving it with $18.9 billion. Both companies cannot fund salaries and ongoing operations if the market continues to collapse the way it did in the third quarter 2008 with losses of 30-45% in sales. Government support is the only way to fund operations but instead of the $50 billion initially talked about for lifesupport by the government the numbers will run into much more and even then there is no limit to what may be needed. Chrysler is in much worse shape, because it depends on the US market entirely for sales, and is the weakest of the three Detroit carmakers. It is privately owned so figures are hidden, one can guess that big numbers are involved for Chrysler being rescued or merged or taken over by the government....

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The system of using performance evaluations for "forced" or "stack" ranking of employees started with Jack Welch at General Electric. Microsoft adopted the system under Ballmer till 2013, when it decided that the need for teamwork was more important and discontinued the practice. Welch used it to get rid of "underperformers" or managers who did not conform to his requirements when he became CEO of General Electric. It was his personal style and way of bringing change to GE. The practice of "forced" ranking increases competition inside the company instead of teamwork, say managers, and leaves a lot to the caprice of individual managers. In December 2013 Ballmer facing criticism from his Board for missing some of the disruptive technologies in the information tech business and falling behind Apple and Google, sought the advice of Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Company. Mulally had to fight entrenched Japanese competitors and pull Ford out of a crisis in which even Ford's logo had been put up as collateral for loans. Meeting for 4 hours on Mercer Island in Seattle Mulally told Ballmer that he focussed on teamwork and simplifying the way Ford did things. Ballmer phased out the "forced" ranking system as one of the last major steps before he leaves Microsoft. In today's environment for tech companies of intense competition worldwide and disruptive technologies without teamwork and employees looking to come up with new and exciting products the future is surely lost. Having the "bottom" 50% of the employees compete for limited positions can be dangerous or suicidal without the dominant position in markets that GE and Microsoft had. It also makes no sense to substitute internal competition and capricious manager behaviours for teamwork. It is the responsibility of managers to do as much as possible to make good hiring decisions, and then motivate and help employees to achieve their best performance with frequent helpful feedback, and to promote teamwork. This is the lesson Ford learned through its crisis and Microsoft is now learning....

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Today GM announced that it is eliminating lifetime health coverage for about 100,000 white collar salaried retirees, as it is rapidly running out of cash to run operations. Also white collar salaries of current employees will be cut by 20 percent and the $1 a share dividend eliminated. This with other savings will save $1.5 billion annually GM estimates. Union contracts prevent this from taking effect for former factory workers even as the company is truly running out of cash. In paying the lifetime costs of hospital stays, surgeries, expensive drugs for retirees GM spends$4.6 billion in 2007 on health care for its one million employees and retirees and their dependents. This is larger that GM's entire active work force and a big reason GM has got into trouble. It also skewed management decisions in the wrong way. Management let it affect their strategy in the marketplace, they continued to run the company by emphasizing sales volume with frequent sales and discounting in the belief that the size was needed to support all these retirees goldplated medical care, care which does not exist in other industries and companies, even when GM coud least afford it. By carefully shutting down plants earlier as demand for some of its cars and vehicles was shrinking, and closing down some brands, GM could have focussed its efforts on the areas including smaller passenger cars and midsized cars and other models which were gaining popularity, and shifting ahead of the curve out of pickups and large SUV's in the face of higher gas prices. Its the collapse of the pickup and SUV market that exaggerated the impact even in October 2008, instead of the about 30% decline that the industry faced and GM faced in its cars, GM's dramatic drop in pickups and SUV's gave it an overall loss of 45% October 2008 over same month 2007. Without this aberrration of health care benefits from a previous growth era and a dominant GM - an anachronism in the present when GM was in decline and health care costs had mushroomed and company health care benefits cut back in industry after industry- and without the intransigence of the unions and the failure of management to build credibility, share the pain and convince the unions in good faith that this was unsustainable, GM could have had a much better shot of developing a strategy for renewal. Instead it sealed GM's fate, along with lack of foresight in taking decisive action to shift to higher fuel efficiency cars early in the curve, and closing unneeded plants and brands to focus on this task. In the end the gold plated benefits which were terminated today are lost for salaried retirees, and sooner or later the same is likely to happen inside or outside bankruptcy for union workers. Union workers who might then say what the salaried retirees are saying now, that if the company goes out of business, they would lose everything anyway, and could not blame GM for cutting them off. If only they had understood this earlier and accepted these facts, and if only managment had built the credibility and shared the pain so that company's interests came above union or management interests, as they should be for a company to grow or renew itself and grow. In the end union workers in the auto industry were living beyond their means, just as consumers in the USA were living beyond their means, and the outsized executive compensation also a kind of grab from another era. Renewal starts with getting a grip on reality, and reality slipped away from their hands....

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Rattner calls his own contact with GM's culture a revelation of what went really wrong at the automaker before the bankruptcy. He refers to the "nods" and the "salutes," the superficial power point presentations, and failed leadership, calling it hugely disappointing and stunning in its scope and extent. The greatest damage is done to GM's employees, its partners and customers, and to America, with the collapse of values and culture at a key manufacturing company. Did Akerson and Whittaker, CEO's brought in from the outside after the bankruptcy, get a grip on this and make changes, or was their period at the company too short to make an impact. The period since the recalls has not convinced the American public that GM is now a different company.

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GM comes out with a new Buick La Crosse and 2 new crossovers at the Detroit Auto Show just when the market is sagging.