In short, We the People, the majority stakeholders in GM, the people who have pumped tens of billions of dollars into the organization, are bringing in the very management style that approved of years of lawbreaking at one of the nation's largest companies, AT&T.
As the AP reports (yes, I know)
Edward Whitacre Jr., 67, eventually will replace Kent Kresa, who will remain GM's interim chairman until the reorganized automaker emerges as a new company that's majority-owned by the U.S. government.
Why do we care about Mr. Whitacre? I'm glad you asked.
Whitacre was chairman and chief executive of AT&T and its predecessor companies from 1990 to 2007. During his tenure, he led the company through several acquisitions and sales.
Not mentioned in an AP Report, of course, is that AT&T helped the government conduct a huge, massively illegal eavesdropping program during that tenure. I find it fun to go back and read diaries about these developments as they were unfolding. When the SBC/AT&T merger happened in 2005, that gave Whitacre the leadership opportunity to change course, to come clean, to break with the government. Of course, AT&T went the opposite direction, doubling down on its closeness with the Bush Administration and absolute disregard for the wishes of customers or Americans in general.
One aspect I want to highlight that really fascinates me is how pedestrian an announcement like this really is. When it comes to corporate governance, our current crop of political and business leaders just don't think lawbreaking is a relevant bit of history. They implement policies with severe consequences for the slightest infractions for others, while they seek for themselves immunity from even direct lawbreaking.
I am not part of the advocacy for getting rid of corporations as we know them today. I think they are one of the most important developments of the 20th century. Bureaucracy, economies of scale, redundancy, and so forth, are valuable in both some governmental and some private sector organizations. What I would emphasize is that in large organizations in particular, leadership is the most important component of senior management. Specific skills and experience, as well as general competence and intelligence, are of course valuable. But far and away, it's the ethos, the organizational culture, espoused by the leadership style of the senior management team that sets the tone for everything else.
A telecommunications executive who spent his last couple years covering up massive impropriety in concert with the Bush Administration should retire away quietly. We need change, desperately, at places like GM. Fresh blood, not more of the same corporate leadership that has so spectacularly failed us.
One other tidbit. AT&T isn't his only affiliation. There is something that at least gets him a little closer in experience to the auto industry.
In 2008, he was paid about $478,000 as a Director at Exxon Mobil.