[Iris7]

This speech is copyreight by Jerry York not the Detroit News. The text is in a .pdf file accessed through the "source url" link above.

[Iris7]

Jerry York is Kirk Kerkorian's representative. Kerkorian has been much in the automobile news concerning a "takeover" and "dismembering" of General Motors. Jerry York gave speech given January 10, 2006 at the Detroit Auto Show.

This is probably the most important text on the domestic auto industry to date. I recommend it most highly.

[VOA]

Rarely can you depend on the people that caused a problem to fix it.

Rough paraphrase of something Einstein said.
(granted, Einstein wasn't any sort of automotive genius...)

[Cobra64]

Jerome goes around and around and around. I stopped reading after page 200.

[VOA]

GM is still in risk of playing the French...only they have car lines
instead of a Maginot Line.

Talk about a company that refused to learn from history.
I guess it explains why they have no real clue about how to maintain
the company and take it into the future.

[ConservativeMind]

An excellent speech.

GM has a lot of good people working there, but none have had the authority to make the major changes necessary because things still "worked". Now, the upper management is being forced to realize that it can't limp along anymore.

[Eagles Talon IV]

"GM at fork in the road.."

In the immortal words of Yogi Berra "When you come to a fork in the road..take it"

[Hardastarboard]

Take a “clean sheet of paper” approach to the business.

GM's needed to do this for 30 years, but hasn't done it yet. I hate GM like I hate Bill Clinton, but I don't want to see either of them gone. I'd like to see GM survive and thrive, and Mr. Clinton, too. I'd like to see him live to be 120. Behind bars.

[RichardW]

I first thought this said "GM is done, stick a fork in them."

[Brilliant]

I've got a solution: A moritorium on the UAW for five years.

[oldtimer2]

One thing I would recommend to G.M. would be naming Roger Pensky as head of G.M.

[festus]

Is there an executive summary ?

[forester]

Thanks for the ping to a long, but worthwhile speach. I just interviewed for a management job at a sawmill. Actually, I also interviewed there three years back under old management...they hired a bureacrat instead of me, who they then fired within a year. Now they got new management 'cuz they got similar problems to GM...as in the "we've always done it this way" mentality.

If hired, they told me I would have to champion a "change" in current practices. Sounds like Mr. York.... doesn't it? Fortunately, the sawmill company isn't burning $24 million/day....good grief that's a big leak to try and plug up!

[traviskicks]

· First of all, as I pointed out a moment ago, the airline and other bankruptcies have shown us all what the worst deal is – the one you get in a bankruptcy court. So it stands to reason there is a solution substantially better for all than bankruptcy – one that gets GM and the other companies into an acceptably competitive mode.
---

Unforauntely, taxpayers will pick up a good portion of the tab. If they didn't then the union would have real incentives to come to the table.

[1Old Pro]

GM could easily fix their problems, convert their defined benefit plan to a 401k and become a non-union shop.