0:00
[MUSIC] It's an incredibly exciting time to have you here.
Search this video
0:08
There's so much going on in the auto industry.
0:10
And before we delve into the trends within that, and potentially your personal career, and the leadership that you've shown, it'd be great to look at the space as a whole.
0:21
And it seems at the moment there's a sort of existential threat where the need, and indeed the desire to own cars is coming down.
0:30
How do you lead such a huge iconic company in that context?
0:37
>> Well, I think, obviously we do a lot of research to understand what's happening.
0:41
We're definitely seeing people are deciding to buy vehicles later.
0:45
Depending on where they live.
0:46
And if you put the customer in the center of how you look at this, it doesn't surprise me that, if you're in New York City, and you pay a lot of money for a car, and you pay a lot of money to park it.
0:58
When you get it out to drive it, you're in stop and go traffic.
1:00
When you get to where you want to go, you're going to pay a lot of money to park it if you can find a place.
1:05
And so, you start to look at all of those customer pain points.
1:08
And you start to say, people are still going to need to move from point A to point B, but depending on if they're in a dense urban environment, what are they going to need to travel with them?
1:18
Are they a single individual?
1:21
Do they have three children and a Pack 'n Play?
1:23
So I think we try to look at and say, let's really understand the customer.
1:28
And let's understand how we can create value for them.
1:31
And how we can provide new experiences that are better for them.
1:34
And that kind of drives us on how we make decisions about what we invest in and different concepts of why we did the alliance with Lyft, why we bought Cruise Automation, why we started our own car sharing program, Maven.
1:49
It's all with this intent to make sure that we're looking and saying, how do we provide the most value for the customer as they get from point A to point B?
1:57
>> Right, and in these times of sort of quick change, presumably that requires a change of behavior equally at General Motors.
2:04
And it's over 100 years old, over 200,000 employees.
2:09
I'm sure you know these stats.
2:13
>> [LAUGH] >> But more seriously, historically, the focus has been on a long product cycle, on lean operations, not on taking risks, on iterating quickly.
2:24
As we move from a hardware centric world to a more software focused one, how do you change the behavior to become more dynamic, more entrepreneurial?
2:33
>> Well, you make a really good point and we've invested a lot of time in that.
2:37
People have this 100 year old view of General Motors.
2:39
And one of the stats that I throw out that usually surprises people is almost 40% of the employees, the salaried work force, has been with the company less than five years.
2:48
And so, there's a lot of new talent that has come to the company.
2:52
As we've done that, we've kind of mixed, remixed the shift of.
2:56
There used to be a lot of people who worked on body structures, and now we have a lot more software engineers in the technical area, so we've really managed how we shift the skill set of the organization.
3:08
Because even if you take the traditional car, ten years ago, when you look at a car, it had a radio, it maybe had some systems on it.
3:15
But now, every vehicle we make, even say the most base vehicle, has tens of millions of lines of code in it.
3:21
So we've been making that shift and have a lot of new talent that has come to the company.
3:26
But then the second part of your question is, we're a long development cycle.
3:31
If you start from a blank computer screen, not a piece of paper, you're really going to be on a four to five year development plan to put a new car into the marketplace.
3:41
But when we're doing a new offering for Maven, it's on a week cycle.
3:46
It's how quickly do you create the software to add the new functionality to the app?
3:51
And so, we've really had to challenge ourself to know when we need to move at a vehicle development cycle, because the average of a car is over 11. 4 years.
4:05
So we're making a product that's going to be on the road for a very long time, and safety is an overriding priority with that.
4:13
But yet, in different aspects of our business now, what is the minimum viable product to put forward that will really start to add value?
4:21
So we have to be working, we talk about working at both speeds.
4:25
One of the great things was acquiring Cruise Automation.
4:28
Because what we've done with Cruise, and we've now given them responsibility not only to develop the artificial intelligence, or the specific software for autonomists linked into the major technical resources of the company.
4:42
But we've also given them the responsibility for commercialization and we have a, I'll say a very thin line of a handful of people that they go to when they want to leverage the vast resources of General Motors.
4:54
There's like a pretty hard wall with the big company wanting to go into the startup because we don't want to overwhelm them with help and slow them down.
5:03
And so, it's really allowed us to kind of learn, I'll say at startup speed, how to run a major initiative.
5:12
A very important program that we're working on from an autonomous driving perspective and we're able to start to infuse that type of thinking into the broader organization.
5:21
So the added benefit of acquiring Cruise was not only the wonderful technology and the talented people, but it was also just driving the whole company to work at start up speed.
5:32
>> And speaking about autonomous cars, I think we all acknowledge now it's a matter of when not if.
5:40
What should we as, sort of, citizens be most excited about in that transformation?
5:44
What should we be most concerned about?
5:47
>> I think we should be most excited is safety, because 96%, if you look at the latest statistics, 96% of all fatalities, and this is US data, because it's readily available, are due to human error.
5:59
And so, as you get into autonomous vehicles, you are going to be moving to a much safer way to be moving from point A to point B.
6:07
So I think that's one of the most significance.
6:09
And also, if done well, is more convenient, gives you time back.
6:14
You can be doing other things in the vehicle, having different experiences.
6:18
We call it a vehicle, but whatever we want to call what moves you from point A to point B.
6:24
I think worried about is, I don't know if the customers necessarily were.
6:29
But I think it's also, I wouldn't call it a worry as much as an understanding.
6:33
Is that, for a very long time, autonomous vehicles are going to be interacting with vehicles driven by humans.
6:41
And it's going to be moving to a much safer place, but that doesn't mean that everything is going to be perfect.
6:47
Nothing in life is perfect.
6:48
No software program is infinitely perfect.
6:51
And so I think understanding how we make that transition in today's world, I think will be important, that we spend some time educating but also helping people to understand what the technology is capable of and what it's not.
7:03
And especially where we're going to be, for a very long time, we'll be in a world that has both.
7:08
>> And you mentioned the significant investment you made in Lyft earlier.
7:14
I think at one point there was even talk about potentially acquiring it.
7:16
But what's the game plan there and particularly give them what's happened more recently, how do you think of trying to lead to Uber? >> Well.
7:26
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] That's lift subjective I would imagine.
7:33
The way we look at it and why we did the alliance is we believe that autonomous driving for end consumer will first happen in a shared environment. Now, why is that?
7:43
A one is because as the vehicles, you first put the vehicle out, A, we want to own it until we go through the rapid cycles of getting the sensor across town, there's going to be costs.
7:54
So it's going to make sense to have it in a A shared environment but also because the vehicle will start with limited capability.
8:02
Right now we're limited on how fast the vehicle could go based on how fast we can process the date that coming in from the sensors.
8:07
You know that will change and that will change rapidly.
8:09
So what will happen, the cost curve will go down as the capability curve goes up.
8:15
How does it manage a tunnel?
8:17
How does it manage different snow and fog, and all the other different elements?
8:23
And so, I think, that as we look at it, that is why it was so important to have an alliance.
8:31
We've actually learned a lot about the ride sharing space through our alliance.
8:35
But very important because that's where we think the first major opportunity is for autonomous vehicles.
8:41
>> So maybe summing up all these kind of first few questions, what does General Motors look like in ten years' time, 20 years' time?
8:50
>> I don't think anyone knows.
8:52
But I think my view, and what I work hard every day to make sure, is that General Motors is leading the transformation.
9:01
Because when I look at the assets that we have.
9:03
Not only the deep technical talent of doing, again, machines and technology platforms that are on the roads for more than a decade.
9:14
And leading in how do we focus on the customer to make sure that it's not just technology because we can.
9:20
But how do we solve real issues?
9:22
How do we make the world better from a customer perspective, from an environmental perspective, from a congestion perspective?
9:32
And so I believe that all the assets we have that we have a unique ability and responsibility to live that transformation.
9:38
To do that exceptionally well and improve the whole transportation space.
9:44
>> Okay, the political environment has also seen significant changes.
9:49
A big part of President Trump's campaign was bringing jobs back to the US.
9:55
General Motors has manufacturing hubs all over the world.
9:59
You're also part of his business council.
10:02
How do you sort of balance that and how do you think about bringing all manufacturing jobs back to the US?
10:09
>> Well, I think first, our general philosophy is we build where we sell.
10:14
And in the United States, for example, 70% of the vehicles we sell in the United States are built in the United States.
10:20
If we look at just total number of vehicles built here versus sold here it approaches 80%, so we do have a lot of jobs.
10:28
We have over 100,000 jobs in this country alone.
10:32
So, part of it was making sure people understood our industry.
10:38
My responsibility is to manage the company and deploy capital in the best interest of our owners, our shareholders.
10:44
And so I've got to look at that and make sure.
10:46
It's easy in the world to say, I'm going to build a factory here and I'm going to bring a bunch of jobs here.
10:51
But if that's not sustainable, if that wasn't the best decision for the company, it's a very temporary situation.
10:57
You have to have a strong, vibrant company to provide jobs to have job security and provide jobs over the long haul.
11:05
And I think that's what the goal is here.
11:07
So I think we work on, how do we make manufacturing more competitive here?
11:14
How do we take away, across the globe there isn't necessarily a level playing field and what can come in versus can be exported.
11:24
So there's a lot that we can work on that's going to improve jobs.
11:27
But the foundation of it has to be good business economic sense.
11:32
Otherwise it's not sustainable and in the long term it's not good for anyone.
11:39
>> Then sort looking specifically, I have one of President Trump's tweets.
11:44
It said General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to US car dealers tax free across the border.
11:53
Making US [INAUDIBLE] pay big border tax.
11:56
[CROSSTALK] >> I recall that too.
11:57
[LAUGH] >> Yeah, they never sound as good when you read them out.
12:00
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> General Motors is clearly not alone in facing tweets from President Trump.
12:10
Given particularly the lack of clearly defined policy that we've seen, how do you react to a tweet like that?
12:17
>> Well, I think the first thing is don't over train at it.
12:19
Because if you step back and say, okay, his message is jobs, that's pretty clear.
12:25
We were within, I don't think it was an hour before that tweet came out.
12:28
We were able to put the facts on that specific vehicle that yes it's built in Mexico but, then it becomes the economics of building cars.
12:36
We probably sell, I don't know, less than 10,000 of those vehicles in the United States.
12:42
Because a hatch, it's a segment that people want, but it's not a dominant segment.
12:50
And that's true for most countries.
12:51
So, placing that business in Mexico with all the free trade agreements they have allows you to offer that vehicle.
12:57
If you said, I can only offer it if I build it here, I wouldn't capitalize it.
13:01
So, it wouldn't be available.
13:03
And so part of it was just explaining that, explaining that the Cruze sedan is built in Lordstown, Michigan.
13:10
And a factory is dedicated to it.
13:12
And I think that pretty much subdued that.
13:14
But I stepped back and said, okay I'm not going to over train on the tweet.
13:17
I'm certainly not going to get into a tweeting exchange.
13:20
>> [LAUGH] >> Let's put the facts.
13:22
>> I don't have those tweets that you- >> [CROSSTALK] Yeah, I do.
13:24
But if you think about it, I step back and said, okay.
13:29
What is the real message?
13:30
And let's now work constructively on trying to create more jobs.
13:35
One of the things I'm really proud about at General Motors is with the 100,000 people we employ.
13:39
Those are good middle class or better jobs in this country.
13:45
And I'm really proud of the jobs that we provide.
13:47
So let's look at how does it make good business sense for us to do more of that as opposed to responding to a tweet.?
13:53
>> Got it and I guess then more formally lots of potential trade policy coming up.
13:59
Is there anything that you're thinking will benefit General Motors substantially or workers in the rust belt?
14:09
>> I think workers across the country, I think getting a level plain field, I think that's how we can really ask.
14:14
We shouldn't ask for an advantage that is artificial.
14:18
Again, my opinion, let's have an equal playing field and then I can create more jobs if I sell more vehicles.
14:25
If I make more vehicles here that I can export.
14:28
Because it's not a 10, 20, or 30% tax as they're sent to another country.
14:33
I mean, our main message is a level playing field, and then let us compete, and we'll bet on us.
14:40
>> Got it, and then we saw that some CEOs, like Travis from Uber.
14:45
Obviously chose not to be part of that business council in the end after a reaction from their user base.
14:51
Was that something that crossed your mind as well, given with parts of your customers, it's an unpopular administration?
15:01
>> First of all, it's our administration.
15:03
I have voted in many elections, and there have been times the candidate I voted for was elected.
15:09
And there have been times that candidate hasn't been, but it then is our government.
15:13
And so when you're asked to serve and with as important as our industry is to the country and jobs and what we do.
15:22
To not take the seat at the table if it's offered to you, I just think it is a missed opportunity.
15:28
And so when I represent the company and to have that voice, into the government, I think, is vitally important.
15:35
And I think it's proven to be very important for us to communicate a very complex supply chain.
15:40
As it related to the border tax initially, when those conversations.
15:44
Or the fact that there wasn't a level playing field across many countries.
15:47
That can send vehicles here with no tax or to talk about job creation and job training.
15:55
There has just been a whole host of issues that we have been able to have a strong voice into it So to miss that opportunity, I wouldn't consider that.
16:04
>> And you mentioned that having a seat at the table, would you ever consider a more permanent seat at the table?
16:11
>> [LAUGH] >> I think I just answered that question about a week and a half ago.
16:15
But I've been at General Motors for 37 years.
16:19
There is just so many exciting things we're working on with transforming the industry.
16:23
That's where my heart is, that's where my passion is and that's where I will work.
16:27
And I think I can contribute, if we execute what we're working on, I think that we can really contribute to the country and to the globe.
16:36
because we do business in many countries, so I think that's where I belong. >> Makes sense. I'll change my track.
16:44
>> [LAUGH] >> So one of the other things is you, obviously, why are you considered one of the faces of successful women in business.
16:56
There sometimes appears to be an expectation that will make you a champion of women in the workplace.
17:03
Is that ever something that's frustrating or how do you handle that?
17:08
>> Well, I guess I'd like to be a champion of people in the workplace.
17:12
because I believe, fundamentally that you'll have create the best experience, have the best results when you engage the hearts and minds of your people.
17:22
So that's the way I look at it.
17:25
Clearly, if I can be a role model for young women to want to pursue a career in STEM, which I think is so vitally important.
17:33
Or for them to say I'm going to aspire to do this because I've seen her.
17:36
And she did it, so why can't I?
17:38
And if I can provide that role model, that makes me extremely happy.
17:44
In my first year on the job, I had somebody come up to me and said, Because of you, my daughter has chosen to study engineering.
17:50
And it was like one of the best comments you could get.
17:53
And so, for sure that is very meaningful.
17:56
At General Motors, because you can't say diversity is so vitally important for the success of our company.
18:03
And it's not something that you can say, well, I did it and it's done, it's something that you continually work on.
18:07
I champion a group of the most senior women, so the top 35 women in the company.
18:13
But it's really for me, it's getting them to say, okay, don't come to me and tell me everything that's wrong.
18:18
You're a senior person in this company.
18:19
Go tell me how you're going to solve those problems, and what you're going to do to make it better.
18:23
And we now meet three to four times a year, and work on what are some of the issues with women and diversity.
18:31
because what I found earlier in my career as I worked on diversity, is generally a lot of times when you solve these issues from women, you solve these issues for everyone.
18:39
Because a lot of time men have the same issues, or if it's a minority issue, or whatever it is a lot of it can get solved with solving the women, the issue that's termed the woman's issue.
18:50
And so I'm dedicated to that.
18:53
But I also believe it's you want to win the hearts and minds of your entire team.
18:59
>> Right, and if we now look back to sort of the start of your career.
19:05
You came through as a co-op student with General Motors, and spent 37 years rising to the top.
19:12
A lot of us now, I think don't expect to have such a long term career at one company.
19:19
What would be your advice for us in considering that, and if you're reviewing resumes now?
19:27
How'd you think about someone that's maybe gotta wider breadth of knowledge versus a depth of knowledge, and someone that stayed in one place for a longer time?
19:36
>> Well, you meet people who have breadth and depth, depending on what the role is. So I look for that.
19:41
I don't necessarily look and say, this person's been at four companies.
19:45
And this person's been at one.
19:47
I want to sometimes understand, because if the person's been at four companies, why did they leave?
19:54
And a lot of the times they leave for very good reasons.
19:56
Sometimes if you get to a point where, well I had an issue here, then I had the same issue here, and I had the same issue here, and I had the same issue here. Maybe you're the issue.
20:05
[LAUGH] >> And so, I kind of want to probe a little on that, but beyond that, that's not important to me.
20:12
It's really what the skills, and abilities, and experiences that they bring, and the leadership that they bring.
20:19
I've been at General Motors for 37 years, and I wouldn't say when I started and graduated as a co-op student that I was going to be here.
20:25
I didnt have this plan, well I will be at General Motors for 37 years.
20:29
I kept having great experiences put in front of me. They sent me here.
20:32
We were just talking in the back that, when I first came back from the business school, there had been a lot of change in turmoil and I didn't have the best job.
20:38
And it wasn't one of those that I was passionate about.
20:42
And fortunately in about a year's period of time, and especially by two, the situation changed and I chose to stay.
20:51
So I always believe in your career.
20:52
Life's too short to work for a company or be in a position that you don't love.
20:58
Now, work is work, I had this funny text from my nephew, who's now graduating from a BBA in the business school at Michigan.
21:05
And it was his first job, and he texted me.
21:08
I'm sitting at a computer and I've got to do all this work on spreadsheets and I, it was kind of like, this isn't much fun.
21:14
I said, yeah that's why they call it work.
21:17
[LAUGH] >> You're going to have to work and not every days, you can't measure your career on everyday.
21:23
But if you find yourself after six months after a year that, work is not challenging.
21:28
Or you don't enjoy it, or you're not energized by it, you should probably find something else to do.
21:33
Again because life's too short.
21:35
I am fortunate after 37 years, and again it wasn't always just a straight line, there were ups and downs in that curve.
21:41
But I've been offered tremendous opportunities which you can have at a big company, like a company like General Motors.
21:47
To have worked in communications, and HR, and run an assembly plant, and led the machinery equipment, purchase for the globe, and product development.
21:59
I feel like I've had a bunch of careers, they've just all happened to have been at General Motors.
22:05
>> So having had two years at the GSB, and to have enjoyed the life in California, the transition back to Detroit, was that- >> [LAUGH] >> Was that an easy one?
22:18
And I guess as graduates again here, Detroit is probably not one of the places that a lot of us are looking for work.
22:25
How'd you think about that now?
22:28
What are the positives we're missing about Detroit?
22:31
>> [LAUGH] >> Well, there are so many.
22:34
First of all, it was easy for me to go back home because that's where my husband was, and that's where my family was.
22:38
And I'm a pretty family-oriented person.
22:41
So if General Motors had said, hey you could stay here, I probably had said, well unless my husband's coming here I want to go there.
22:47
But again, family oriented person at the time, my parents were there.
22:50
And so, that wasn't that hard a decision.
22:52
Now I have to admit one of the reasons I love being on the Stanford advisory board for the GSB, as well as the board of trustees, I love the Bay Area.
23:02
And, one of the things that I, and Glen will remember this when we designed.
23:07
We actually do a custom program for our top leadership.
23:11
And one of our third, I think completing our third cohort now.
23:15
It's a program that runs a year with four different weeks.
23:18
And when I first came to the school I said Silicon Valley doesn't have the, or Palo Alto, you don't have the lock on innovation creativity.
23:27
And I want to infuse that back into the company actually, across the globe.
23:32
And that was kind of the start of designing the program that we did around design thinking, and leadership, and it's actually one of the most popular classes, it's not a class it's a development program, it's probably of all time.
23:44
So it's something that's worked out exceptionally well, so it's a beautiful climate there's a lot of energy here.
23:52
But Detroit is different, Detroit you have seasons you have. >> [LAUGH] >> Come on.
23:59
[LAUGH] >> But and my mother used to say that too, but I do say just to be telling you this I say ever and since I spent two years out here my blood thinned cause I'm always cold when its winter.
24:11
If its below 60 its cold.
24:12
>> [LAUGH] >> However in saying that I do enjoy it is a different climate.
24:18
And the midwest is a different type of community.
24:22
And that's where I've grown up so that's home for me, and so I do enjoy it.
24:27
Again, what I think is so interesting about Detroit right now, and again if you don't like the Colts, you're not going to be happy, I'm not going to try to put a bow on that.
24:38
But what is really exciting right now to be in Detroit, is because the city is going through just a complete renaissance, and it's fun to be a part of that.
24:47
It's fun to see the new restaurants start up, and the new cultural things that you can do.
24:55
And just to be a part of how we're reinvigorating the city, the entrepreneurship.
25:00
People coming to the town to watch the new buildings come up.
25:02
You know, I joked about the fact that they built a Whole Foods in downtown Detroit, which five years ago people would've been like, no.
25:10
But they built a Whole Foods and the biggest problem with the Whole Foods is the parking lot's not big enough.
25:15
Because, when you look at all the young professionals that have come into the city, when they work all day, it's part of their routine.
25:22
So, it's really fun to be a part of a city that's going through this rebirth and to be a part of it.
25:29
And the other thing, why we're drawing a lot of entrepreneurs there is because it's pretty cheap to live there.
25:34
So you can start a new business, you can launch something.
25:37
So, I love it here but I love it there. >> That makes sense.
25:43
And if we now go, just ahead in your career, you became CEO, there were other internal candidates in the running.
25:53
They changed from peers to becoming people that reported in to you.
25:57
How did you handle that transition?
26:01
>> Well, I think first of all, we had a strong relationship before.
26:05
We had worked together before, and I have a very collaborative leadership style, so I want to get the best views on the table.
26:14
And I think, because we knew each other so well, it wasn't like I said something and then everybody froze.
26:19
And I want people to challenge me.
26:20
I'm going to, you know, come at an issue, and if I've got a point of view I'm going to come at it pretty hard and be pretty convicted.
26:26
But, if someone presents a compelling counterpoint, I want to hear that.
26:31
And so I try to make sure there's a lot of constructive tension, and that all views are heard.
26:36
There's times on really important decisions where I go to every single person around the table and say, what do you think?
26:43
And I've also done work with my senior leadership team to build trust.
26:47
We actually do off sites two to three times a year.
26:50
Well we go in to make sure, we know how to give each other constructive negative feedback and have a direct conversation why I don't agree with you and it's not personal.
27:00
So I think because that's my style of being pretty collaborative, we were able to work through it pretty quickly.
27:07
There was a probably a couple little where you kind of had a re-negotiate how the relationship was going to work but, I would say a weeks, maybe a few months in it was kind of a nonissue.
27:20
>> That's a collaborative style is that partly because of the experience you had, the GSP as well the offsite you have talked about sound like some of the courses that we do here.
27:30
Was that like big part of the collaborative style that you used?
27:35
>> I think it's a good question, I mean I learned so much here.
27:38
I always say when people ask me, what did you learn, I didn't know what I didn't know.
27:42
I had an engineering background, I had worked in a big company, but more in a focused area.
27:47
And so, it was so broadening to come here and understand the several aspects of business, so it's always been a foundation for me.
27:55
But I think it probably does route back to all those group projects you're doing now where you could probably write the paper a little faster, but it wouldn't be as good because it wouldn't be fusing together four views or having those debates about, what's better?
28:10
And I think you're right.
28:12
I think that it takes more time, but in the end you get, i think a much better answer that you can then execute, because the other thing is, once you go through that process of debating, everybody's on board, you know, if you're doing it well, you get everyone on board and then you execute a lot faster.
28:33
>> Then right at the time you did become CEO you had to immediately handle the faulty ignition switch crisis.
28:41
And how, if you had been CEO before that rather than in the direct aftermath, was there anything you could've done differently?
28:51
Or any changes that you could of made to avoid it.
28:54
>> Yeah, clearly if we'd known about it sooner we've could of made better decisions.
29:00
But one of the things that I think is not well known from the way that it was covered in the media was this was an issue that was unfortunate that over a long period of time mistakes were made.
29:11
But it was the internal company.
29:13
And actually the team who finally figured out what was happening and brought the issue forward, and we decided to do the recall so.
29:21
But clearly there were a lot of mistakes made along the way and, you know, I don't know.
29:26
The minute we found out about it, we acted.
29:28
And the minute we knew, we were guided by three principles, of doing the right thing for the customer, being transparent.
29:35
And doing everything in our power to make sure it never happened again, which meant changing a lot of processes and the way work was done.
29:41
And so, I think it's one of those things, you don't get to choose when you have a crisis.
29:46
When you have it, you have to deal with it then, and you don't get to put it off and say I'll deal with it next month.
29:52
You deal with it now, because that's just the way the world works.
29:56
>> And throughout that time, you made a significant effort to rebuild General Motor's image with increase number of public appearances, and so on.
30:06
How did you consider trying to be proactive verses reactive in that time of crisis?
30:12
>> I think you have to be proactive because especially with how fast communications happen today If you don't tell if you don't get the facts out on the table that void will be filled with misinformation.
30:26
And so we thought it was very important that's why transparency was one of the kind of guiding principles we use to make sure we will be [INAUDIBLE] at the same time, you can't answer questions you don't know the answer to.
30:38
And so, there were times where I had to say, I don't know.
30:41
And, you know, I was criticized for that when I went to Congress.
30:43
You know, even made fun of on Saturday night live, but, that's a fun thing to wake up to.
30:50
[LAUGH] And my brother calling me, Mary! Mary! I'm like. My gosh.
30:55
>> [LAUGH] >> But, you don't really you have to tell the story and you have to answer the questions when you know the answer.
31:07
One of the things and I encourage all of you, cause your so tempted because you think you know what happened.
31:14
Had I done that I would have answered wrong.
31:17
And I would've probably caused a lot more harm to the company.
31:21
So you want to get to the facts as quickly as you can but if you don't have facts you can't, it's this rationing, because you got to move as fast as you can but you have to do it with facts.
31:31
And for me the way I worked on that was to have a cross functional team that kind of had, here's the engineering view, and the finance view, and the legal view, and the communications view.
31:41
And the customer sales view, let's all get in a room and let's figure out what are we all hearing, what do we need to do, what are the facts, are you sure, okay, now we're going to move.
31:51
>> And now as you look back over your career, one of the quotes that I saw as we were preparing for this was that you've never asked for a raise.
32:01
And if you were now at the start of that career journey, would you think about that differently?
32:07
>> I guess the way I look at it, it kind of gets back to what I said before.
32:12
If you don't love your job, if you don't think you're being fairly compensated, or challenged, or it's not a fulfilling job, you need to act on that.
32:20
I think I found through my career, pay wasn't one of the issues that I had.
32:26
I wasn't saying never do it, I'm just saying I found myself in a position where there were times I had to ask for say, hey, I know this is my job now.
32:34
And I'm going to do this really well, but here are where my interests are and I'd like to have the opportunity to be considered for roles in this area.
32:43
I think that's your obligation and I did proactively advocate for myself in those types of situations.
32:50
I just never had an issue where I thought I wasn't being fairly compensated.
32:53
>> Good, and final question from me now before we open up to the audience.
33:00
Also as part of the research, we read about your sort of never happier than actually on the test track, putting the cars through the paces.
33:09
Is there anything else we would be potentially surprised to know about?
33:12
>> [LAUGH] >> Probably [LAUGH].
33:17
But no just from a work perspective, again, people say, why did you stay at General Motors so long?
33:23
There is something about the auto industry.
33:25
And there's been a couple times now where we've had people leave the industry and come back.
33:29
And when I'm interviewing, I'll say, so why do you want to come back?
33:32
And they'll be, because I miss it.
33:34
because there's just an excitement about building cars, or trucks, or crossovers.
33:39
And people name them and they write songs about them, and they pick it because this fits my personality or this fits my functionality.
33:47
But for a lot of people a car is kind of an extension of themselves and it's fun to be in that business.
33:54
And then, I feel like we're in the technology business, we're in the fashion business, and so I just love the industry.
34:03
And I would say my best days are either spending time at design staff, because then you're looking at what is the next generation of this?
34:09
Or, what is the all new vehicle in this segment going to be?
34:12
The minute I see it, I'm why is that two years out? I want it now.
34:18
Or getting to spend time in our Milford proving grounds or some of the test tracks we have around the world, and drive in our vehicles.
34:24
And when I was running product development, every Friday afternoon we'd go out to our proving grounds.
34:30
And we'd drive our new cars, or cars that were under development, we'd drive it against the competition.
34:34
And we'd spend the afternoon and it's what we do. So it's a lot of fun.
34:41
>> Amazing, well, this by now then look to my colleagues.
34:54
>> Hi, my name is Maurine Gauge Capello, and I'm a MBA two here.
34:58
We talk a lot about culture at Stanford and I wonder for you, you're kind of leading GM through this merger of cultures of an automotive world that is kind of slower returns, longer cycles, a lot of capital.
35:11
Versus like this technology innovation, cycle of high returns, quick innovation, and I'm curious how you think about leading a company through that and merging those two cultures together?
35:22
>> Yeah, one of the ways to do that is to bring in talent.
35:27
We brought in a lot of talent who understood the vehicle development cycle that you talked about, the longer capital intensive cycle.
35:37
But really to do it quickly, you had to bring people in.
35:40
And you had to get them in the room and get them debating it and coming up with the right answer.
35:46
Because you can do certain things especially in the vehicle.
35:50
When you look at all the things you can do in a vehicle now with connecting your phone and all that different technology.
35:57
Or just the different functionality better word that you can do in a car now that you couldn't do five or ten years ago.
36:04
But how that work speed, how you're technically doing that and still protecting the braking and the steering system, but providing all this functionality.
36:12
And most people don't understand, they'll be like, well, why can't I control this?
36:15
Well, that's pretty core to the engine performance type of thing.
36:18
So, but getting the two mindsets in the room and coming up with the winning solution is the best way to do it fast, I've found.
36:26
And then just from a culture perspective, to me when I look at culture it's about behaviors.
36:32
So when people ask me what are you most worried about?
36:35
I'm confident we have good answers but will we get them to market fast enough?
36:38
And so, constantly re-emphasizing the speed, but yet you can't, you sometimes, an organization, especially an engineering organization will take you so literally, that you have to make sure that you're talking about safety.
36:53
One of the things we always say, we want results, but we want it with integrity.
36:57
And so, it's really, to me, talking a lot about behaviors.
37:01
But when you're trying to blend two very different worlds, it's pretty hard to take this person and or this person and switch them and have that be successful.
37:10
But you put them together and they can be really powerful.
37:20
>> [COUGH] Jim Phelps, MBA 79. >> [LAUGH] [APPLAUSE]. >> No cane, no walker.
37:33
>> [LAUGH] >> Going back to the breadth versus depth conversation that you had a while back.
37:43
I wondered if you might be able to comment on the increasing push at both the undergraduate and graduate level to focus, be more capable the moment you come out.
37:53
Commit and pick majors earlier.
37:56
In graduate school, get concentrations that are more finely tuned.
38:02
And contrast that with the recent comments by Sam Palmisano, the recently retired chairman and head of another technical company, IBM.
38:12
[COUGH] That he says, I think we have a need for more breadth for people that can communicate, can be cross disciplinary.
38:20
How do you see that working out at a firm like GM and what can you say to the student body that's facing these sorts of questions right now?
38:32
>> It's really interesting.
38:34
Again, from a company perspective, I need people who have tremendous depth.
38:39
If you're a chief engineer of a vehicle, that's generally, by the time you get to be a chief you've been in that vehicle development, being on a product program for about 15 years.
38:49
Because the cycles of learning, really being able to make all of the decisions to integrate every single system in the vehicle.
38:56
The way we do it, it's a really small team that is the chief engineer, and then the electrical group, and the power train group, and the body structures group, and the infotainment, they're all coming together.
39:07
But they're the ones that have got to make those tradeoffs so.
39:09
And there are certain areas where we just need tremendous staff.
39:14
And then there's areas where you need somebody say, yeah, I understand this but I do need the breadth because you need to make the trade offs.
39:21
So it's kind of you need to make the trade offs this way or this way.
39:24
That's why I say you need both.
39:26
And I'm going to answer the second part of it as a mom though.
39:29
So I have a sophomore in college and a high school senior.
39:33
And I just, we are just asking.
39:36
I go back, and not that we can go back to when I was a kid.
39:39
But how can you know when you're 16 years old, exactly what you want to do for the rest of your life?
39:46
I'm not sure I know what I want to do at age 55, for the rest of my life.
39:52
So I think there's a need to, if you're studying engineering, to still have some broadening classes and some, from a From a liberal arts perspective, or the liberal arts school, or to understand philosophy, I think it makes you a better engineer.
40:09
So this, I'm only going to do this, and I'm going to focus, and I'm going to be the best person on this one technology.
40:16
It's one thing if you make that decision once you get into your career.
40:21
I remember one of the most valued people when I was running the manufacturing engineering group with my welding expert.
40:27
And he had spent his career becoming a welding expert.
40:31
And grew into that role and that's the kind of depth I'm talking about you need.
40:35
But he probably made that decision in his thirties or forties.
40:38
Not at 16, 17, 18, when you're picking an undergraduate major.
40:43
So I'm a big proponent that as you're at a university, yes, if you know for sure this is what you want to do.
40:52
I still think you should get some broadening classes and challenge yourself to think a little differently.
40:58
If you don't know, that's okay!
41:00
And then you need to take a broad sweep.
41:01
So again, I have one child who knows exactly what he wants to do, and I have another who doesn't.
41:06
And I'm telling them both, take some of those classes that are going to broaden.
41:10
That you're not sure about because, again, I came here thinking I was kind of checking a box.
41:16
And I didn't know what I didn't know.
41:18
So it scares me how we're pretty soon you're going to be in middle school and have to declare a career so.
41:24
>> [LAUGH] >> Christoph Meyer MBA two I'd love to hear your perspectives.
41:31
So many companies have entered the automotive space including tech companies.
41:36
What competitor keeps you up at night?
41:38
>> Well, I like to describe ourself as a tech company.
41:41
>> [LAUGH] >> Tens of millions of lines of code in every vehicle, but okay.
41:46
>> [LAUGH] >> But to your point, they all scare me.
41:52
It's my job to be paranoid about that.
41:54
I mean, there are some incredibly, when you look at the big players in the, I'll say in the traditional sense, the OEMs, they're very capable.
42:03
Whether you're talking about Asian competitors, or German competitors, Korean competitor, very capable, so they keep me up at night.
42:10
And then when you look at the resources that some of the Apples, and the Googles, and some of the startups can bring.
42:16
I mean we bought a startup because, and we made that decision could we have grown that talent inside?
42:22
Probably, it was a heck of a lot faster to take somebody who had been working on it a couple years and then marry the two and find the right power.
42:30
So whether it's the big tech companies, or the traditional OEMs, or the startups, they all worry me.
42:37
And that's my job to worry about all of that.
42:42
>> Alex Minkey, MBA one, I was curious to get your thoughts on the growth of EV's, head winds and tail winds.
42:50
How fast your expecting them to grow and GM strategy within that.
42:54
>> So from a electric vehicle perspective, I think it's definitely part of the future solution.
43:00
When you look at the environmental concerns, it's absolutely a must.
43:04
As are fuel cells, and we invest heavily in both.
43:06
I think EVs will come first kind of down the learning curve.
43:11
Because we're still working on solving the kind of the energy density issues around batteries, and the cost issues.
43:18
Although, we had tremendous learnings from our first generation Volt, to our second generation Volt, to now the Chevrolet Volt.
43:26
I keep seeing the costs come down and the energy density go up.
43:30
So I believe we're close, in fact, General Motors we have put out externally I said we have challenged ourself to be the first OEM or company that has profitable electric vehicles that are affordable.
43:42
Because we believe it's so much a part of the future.
43:45
The biggest volume is going to first be in China because they're regulating it.
43:50
And when you look at the size of the Chinese market, last year it was 28 million new vehicles sold.
43:54
Whether it's 18, 19, or 20, 10% of that market by mandate.
44:00
Well, 10, 12, 14% will be electric or either fully ED or a plug in hybrid.
44:06
So definitely moving here, there's a part that's an emotional decision and then for the bulk of people who buy vehicles, there's a financial decision.
44:17
And with low gas prices, it makes the equation even a little bit harder.
44:21
But I believe, five years, it'll be significantly more across the globe.
44:27
A lot of it does depend on fuel prices.
44:29
But I think it's a trend and a very important technology that we have to continue to develop aggressively, because it's so important from an environmental perspective.
44:42
>> Hi Mary, Jeff Howe, MBA one.
44:45
You have a particularly vocal and public investor in your company right now, who's indicated he's not 100% in agreement with everything GM is deciding.
44:54
I was just curious to hear from you how you think about managing that dialogue?
44:58
And also how you think about shareholders in the context of all stakeholders in GM?
45:02
>> Well, shareholders are our owners, so they're vitally important.
45:07
And that's why we spent so much time on this particular issue, to look to see hey is there a good idea here?
45:12
Because our job is to do the best, responsibly, for our share holders.
45:19
And as we evaluated this issue, we didn't think it was in the best interest of our share holders.
45:23
And so I talk regularly to multiple shareholders, just two days ago I was in Boston meeting with several shareholders.
45:35
Spent the day, and I do that quite regularly.
45:36
So I think it's very important to listen to your shareholders, to understand their points of views.
45:40
But at the same time then we have to take all that information and integrate it and then understand, because we're at the company day in and day out, and understand.
45:51
Maybe at a level deeper because we spend 24/7 on it and so we've gotta look at what's the right decision.
45:59
Let's take all that input now and let's understand what we're doing.
46:02
Is there a way we can improve our strategy?
46:04
Is there a different capital allocation decision we can make?
46:07
We've always gotta stay open to that, because not every good idea is going to necessarily come from the company.
46:12
So that's the way I hugely value my shareholders, and feel it's vitally important to listen to them on a very regular basis.
46:23
>> Hi, Shan you, class of 07.
46:26
And also a GM shareholder. >> Thank you.
46:28
>> [LAUGH] >> I have a question about automated cars.
46:32
Assuming that the future includes automated cars talking to each other through a protocol, my question is how do you think we're going to get there?
46:40
Do you think the market's going to pick a winner among OEMs or tech companies, traditional tech companies?
46:46
Or do you think government's going to set a standard or play a role?
46:50
>> Well I think if you're going to have the vehicle to vehicle communications which we actually have a vehicle that has a capability on it now.
46:59
It's pretty limited because it's one model.
47:01
I think the government has to play a role.
47:04
And there's already a standard set and a spectrum dedicated to it.
47:10
But I think what's happening because, think about it, every car has gotta have the technology.
47:15
The car park right now in the United States is 240 million vehicles.
47:20
And at a rate of a pretty strong market now of 17.
47:20
5 million vehicles a year, it's a long journey to have fully v to v capability.
47:30
Although there's probably some things you can do, but then of adding the technology to other vehicles, certainly.
47:36
So I think that's a part as we go, and it's v to v, v to i, v to infrastructure as well.
47:42
But I think what's happening in autonomous vehicles now because that's a longer journey.
47:50
Really to do an autonomous vehicle, to control it, you need to know three things. Precisely where am I?
47:56
Precisely what's happening around me?
47:59
And therefore, third, what path do I take safely?
48:03
And we're doing that with other technologies.
48:05
But clearly the V2V and the V2I technology, I think, down the road, has it to take it to even another level of not only safety, but efficiency, but we're a ways off.
48:19
Hi >> My name is Catherine Morgan. I'm in MBA 1.
48:22
When you guys were talking about the roles that cars have played in American culture really resonated with me because I'm from Texas.
48:28
And so I was wondering if you can comment a little bit about how you see the role of cars and maybe more specifically GM playing in the next generation of Americana.
48:37
>> Well, again, as I started the conversation, I think it's our job to not say here customers the solution for you, but to listen to the customer and say what does technology enable us to do?
48:50
How our city's changing, how our transportation changing and then provide the most efficient best solution from a customer's perspective.
48:59
So, I think one of the key things we need to do is really understand what the technology's capable of doing, not only and a wholly world one of the time this vehicles of what do you do when the vehicle because you solve and you haven't you know at least for period time the physical time of getting from point a to point b.
49:16
How do we make that more efficient?
49:18
How do we make the environment, what you're able to do?
49:21
I mean that's why it's so exciting right now to be in the auto business, or the transportation business because it's really, we have to be customer driven in how we deploy the technology most efficiently because I think that's who wins. >> Good afternoon.
49:40
Sort of saying, MSX program, when you got into GM, the way I looked at it, it was starting up a hundred year old company.
49:49
What were your biggest challenges when you get into that role and you had to like jump start something that's been around for so long.
49:57
>> Are you talking about when I became the CEO? >> Yes. >> Okay.
50:00
I had been part of the leadership, the senior leadership team for a handful of years before I had the opportunity to be the CEO.
50:07
So we were already working on transforming the culture, simplifying the company, eliminating bureaucracy, making sure people were empowered to do their best.
50:18
So I'd been kind of been on that journey.
50:21
So a lot of it was continuing and accelerating the work that we were doing to kind of, I'll say, push the reset the button after the bankruptcy with the company.
50:31
And a lot of it really gets to behaviors.
50:35
So if you subscribe that most people come to work everyday and they want to do a good job, what's getting in their way?
50:43
Do we have an environment and a collaborative environment and the tools that are necessary so you can do your best work?
50:49
Or is it painful to get the most simple tasks done.
50:55
And so, a lot of it is just continuing to make sure that processes and systems were efficient and we're giving people the right tools and we're giving them the right training and then empowering them.
51:04
And that's the journey we've been on, I would say, since even before I had the role and continue to do that today.
51:11
We spend a lot of time working on what are the right behaviors, what are the company's values, and how do we really infuse that, because then it gets to that capturing the hearts and minds of everybody that are going to deliver superior results.
51:26
Unfortunately that is all we have time for so please join me and thank you very much.
51:31
>> [APPLAUSE] >> Thank you all, great questions. [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC]