FE: Listen to those you lead

“It’s okay to admit what you don’t know. It’s okay to ask for help. And it’s more than okay to listen to the people you lead – in fact, it’s essential.” —Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors

In honor of Earth Month let’s take a closer look at EVs.
This year marks 10 years of Mary Barra’s tenure as CEO of General Motors, ushering in a crucial year for the Detroit automaker and for her legacy.
Over the past decade, Barra has been a dynamic executive, guiding the company through high-profile crises as the first female leader of a major automaker. Under her stewardship, GM has seen record profits, cultural changes and major achievements, including beating Wall Street earnings forecasts in 34 of the last 35 quarters, according to FactSet.

She’s regularly ranked as one of the most powerful business leaders in the world, with former and current executives describing her as a “visionary” and “inclusive” leader who has always remained focused on the task at hand.
That task, for much of Barra’s time at GM, has been to push the envelope and transform the largest U.S. automaker for sustained success. But her main business plans of late have failed to meet internal or external expectations, including her own.
Initiatives involving electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles have come under pressure, with EV rollout and demand slower than expected and GM majority-owned Cruise in crisis. The EV and AV businesses, along with emerging software initiatives, were major parts of lofty financial targets earmarked for 2025 and 2030.
GM says it can still achieve its goals — among them to double revenue by 2030 — by shifting focus, but it’s yet to detail how, without the help of its stated growth drivers.

“I always thought the EV and AV strategies were awfully ambitious and were more to show Wall Street that they were becoming a ‘tech company’ more than an auto company, trying to imitate Tesla too much in many ways,” said Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst with Cox Automotive, who previously covered GM as a reporter starting in the 1980s.”
GM appeared to be the front-runner in recent years to challenge U.S. leader Tesla

in electric vehicles with its new EV architecture and billions in investments.
Barra surprised many in 2021 by announcing that GM would end production of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles and exclusively offer consumers EVs by 2035. At the time, GM promised to transform the company and automotive industry through what Barra called “visionary investments,” including what would become $35 billion toward electric and autonomous vehicles by 2025.
She touted GM’s growth opportunities, including its next-generation “Ultium” EV architecture, and many other major automakers followed suit and announced similar electrification goals.
Barra’s philosophy as CEO and chair, a position she’s held since 2016, has been to address problems head-on. She routinely says the “best time to solve a problem is the minute you know about it.”
That philosophy has served her and GM well thus far, as Barra has navigated what seems like an unending string of crises in the past decade, the second-longest tenure of any CEO in the company’s 115-year history, after its founder.
Barra managed a recall of roughly 30 million vehicles beginning in 2014 after an ignition switch defect caused 120 deaths and led to a complete restructuring of GM’s safety operations.
“The way that she took the ignition switch recall and used it to really drive some deep change into the organization — she shook some things up,” said Stephanie Brinley, associate director of research at S&P Global Mobility. “And I think they’ve made a difference.”

Akasha Lin
Akasha Garnier for #TheWishwall
Author, Brand Expert, Filmmaker
Photo: AkashaLin
Inspo: Team brand conversations and Inc.
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