If I Were GM's Chief Product Manager

I've watched this most recent auto industry saga unfold with both sadness and delight.  

The sad part is watching people lose jobs and retirement benefits when the economy is in a slump, leaving few if any alternatives.  The other sad part is GM is producing some really great cars and trucks these days, but is it all for naught?

My delight lies in the fact that this rude awakening will hopefully save GM from complete oblivion by forcing them to do something they've needed to do for 20 years or more - restructure the entire business and start making top quality products that reflect the dynamics of the market.

If I were GM's chief product manager I'd make some drastic moves and hope it's not too little too late.

For starters, I'd nix every U.S. brand but Chevrolet and Cadillac.  Why?

• A casual brand and a luxury brand are what the market will bear as a mainstay - Honda/Acura, Nissan/Infiniti and Toyota/Lexus.  This formula has been stealing market share from U.S. auto manufacturers until the recent credit debacle took everyone down.
• Buick caters to my father/grandfather's generation.  Pontiac caters to...people who like lots of cheap plastic body cladding on their cars?  GMC trucks are different from Chevy trucks because...I'm drawing a blank here.  You get the point.
• Cadillac and Chevrolet are the most powerful brands GM has.  Cadillac is still used as an adjective, e.g., Viking is the Cadillac of kitchen appliances.  And it's tough to find a brand more American than Chevrolet (baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet).
• Downsizing will change the GM culture into the smaller company it needs to be so it can focus, become profitable again and grow through "new" brands that cater to different niche market segments with unique products.  They can use common platforms to minimize R&D costs.  Toyota's Scion is the example.
• Without all the overhead of dated and redundant brands, GM can invest more R&D resources into new products and new brands to fuel its growth and become the industry kingpin it once was. 

Any industry expert could certainly argue all the bad things that would happen to people's lives and the US auto industry if GM became a two-brand company.  I'd argue "do it now and get it over with."  It's been happening for years anyway and the recession has accelerated the pace.  The sooner GM gets this mess behind it, the sooner it can focus on becoming profitable again with great products and market share that's trending upward.

If you were calling the shots, what would you do?

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