Shifting Gears

Mark Reuss, president of GM North America, and his team have increased U.S. market share in recent months.

(page 1 of 6)

 The midwinter sun has long since vanished, the glow from the casino across the river vaguely illuminating the ice floes drifting along the Detroit River. The secretaries and most of his senior management team have already headed home — the same place Mark Reuss would like to be on this chilly evening. But he has one more item to complete on his “To-Do” list.

Dialing the phone in his 39th-floor office, Reuss waits as it rings twice before a voice hesitantly answers. It’s a longtime General Motors customer, one of an all-too-rare breed of loyal buyers who could very well become the latest to switch to an import depending on the outcome of the conversation.

But the 47-year-old executive has no intention of letting that happen. It takes Reuss a minute to convince the customer he really is the president of GM North America. Tired but patient, he listens to the tale of woe: a bad transmission, a seemingly disinterested dealer, and a factory rep unwilling to step in. “No problem,” says Reuss. “We’ll fix it,” he says, confirming the customer’s details before hanging up.

“If someone takes the time to write to me personally,” says the man charged with pulling together the giant automaker’s core home market, “I find time to get back to them.”

It’s not the sort of thing buyers have come to expect from a major corporation, certainly not General Motors — which, the youthful executive admits, has earned a reputation for “arrogance.” Yet, this call is anything but unique. Reuss usually has to convince people he’s for real — and so is the “new” GM, which he insists cannot do business as it used to, not if it hopes to take advantage of the $50-billion bailout that kept it from joining so many other once-grand names on the automotive rust heap.

Since emerging from Chapter 11 protection in July 2009, General Motors has gone through some of the biggest changes in its more than 100-year history. As part of its court-ordered restructuring, it abandoned four of its eight North American brands, closed a score of assembly and parts plants, and slashed its workforce. The automaker might have also considered installing a revolving door on the executive suite at its Renaissance Center headquarters. It’s now on its third CEO in just two years (actually the fourth, if you include Rick Wagoner, the GM veteran unceremoniously dumped by the Obama administration during the run-up to bankruptcy).

Most of the management team is new — like Joel Ewanick, the global marketing czar, who made his “bones” as a Hyundai wunderkind. Indeed, many are new to the auto industry entirely. The most notable example is Dan Akerson, the Annapolis grad and longtime telecommunications industry executive who serves as CEO and chairman.

Did you like what you read? Subscribe to DBusiness »