We hope that Fritz Henderson to succeed but he has a gun to the head

Eight small months: never in the history of General Motors (GM), more that Centennial, a CEO is stayed if shortly to his position. This eviction brutal, but somehow predictable, is the result of a robust confrontation between the pattern of the management team and Board of Directors of GM, especially touchy and eager for results. A gruelling governance, including Fritz Henderson would be well spent at the point where it attempts to restart the machine GM, after cumulative losses of 88 billion since the end of 2004.

From the outset, the tone was given. The hiatus was evident between the new Council, consisting of unfamiliar people in the car, and Fritz Henderson, a veteran of the constructor, installed a few months earlier to the position of President and CEO by the "task force" set up by the Obama administration. Hence its original sin: not have been chosen by administrators, which many would have liked to find a candidate outside to blood nine after the fatal reign of Rick Wagoner. It is this debate on the merits of an outsider who has resurfaced at the Council Tuesday. "We hope that (Fritz Henderson) to succeed, but he has a gun to the head." "Something cause a spark in this House", did not hesitate to declare September Ed Whitacre, the new Chairman of the Board of Directors, former boss of AT & T, not guilty of complacency with the CEO, and never embarrassed the idea publicly to stand. For several weeks, every opportunity was seized to expose their divergent views: the theoretical date of future reintroduction in GM stock, the pace to make financial progress, the schedule of repayment of American taxpayers, the opportunity to rid itself of Opel... Fritz Henderson has repeatedly had to deal with his very vigilant "chairman", which will now inherit his position on a temporary basis. A totally unprecedented by as much as, situation at the same time, the US Government, but 61 of GM since spring shareholder, takes care not to interfere in its management.

Change "the GM culture".

On paper, the CEO was known to have nothing to be blamed: the results of the third quarter were even beyond the plan of walking set previously with the Treasury and the "task force" Government. And ironically, his "business plan" for 2010 has been approved by the Council Tuesday, shortly after his own dismissal. But administrators seem to consider that it was not the man to change in depth "GM culture", often taxed bureaucracy and lack of responsiveness. Raised in Detroit, the American automobile, and entered capital at GM as early as 1984, Henderson was the son of a commercial head of Buick, itself remained thirty-nine years in the group.

Element to load today, his CV is very close to that of Rick Wagoner, it appears to have followed step by step during a lightning ascent: Harvard, Treasurer at GM in New York, responsible for Latin America and then, after other positions, the Group Financial Director, COO and CEO. For many, it embodies the "old GM" too, that remained under the Act of bankruptcy, and whose assets are now doomed to liquidation.

But determined to "scouring the mammoth", man was seriously turn its teams, even if cause several defections of scale, such as Chief Financial Officer, the pattern of GM Europe and the Director in charge of clean vehicles. As the wave of new "sexy" cars, key to recovery, administrators will need to be a little patient.