GENERAL MOTORS COMPANY
Leadership and Management
MARRY T. BARRA
In this newsletter, I chose to
interview and interact with Mary
Barra who is the CEO of General
Motors (GM) Corporation. One
of the reason I chose this leader
is due to her transformation as a
leader, and I am intending to join
GM workforce upon completion
of my studies. Mary T. Barra has
both the position of a chairman
and CEO in the company. She is
focused on working towards
achieving the company’s short
term and long term goals.
Mary T. Barra
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
General Motors Company
ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND
General Motors Inc. is one of the oldest automakers in the US and
among the top three in that respect. It has operations in six continents
making it one of the largest automobile makers in the world. The
company was founded on September 16th, 1908 with William Durant
as its leader. Since 2008, GM’s performance has been on a downward
trend with minimal or no profits in some years. In 2008, GM reported
its record loss of USD 38.7 billion during the 2007 financial year. The
company has since received funding from the government USD 13.4
billion through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) from the
government, additional $6 billion in 2009 and an additional $30 billion
for restructuring purposes ("About GM | General Motors," 2019). The
government became the primary shareholder holding 60.8% stake after
bankruptcy; the Canadian Government would own 11.7%, unsecured
bondholders would hold 10% while UAW would own 17.5% of the
stake.
The company pulled out of bankruptcy and changed its name to
General Motors Corporation instead of General Motors Company. The
corporation went public in 2010 raising $20 billion with a share
offering at $33. The company made its first profit in 2010 since 2004
making $4.7 billion. GM deals with other economic activities other
than automobile manufacturing and distribution ("About GM | General
Motors," 2019). GM specializes in design, manufacture, and sale of
cars, trucks and automobile spare parts. The General Motors Financing
Company acts as the finance provider for the company providing
automotive financing services. The major brands include Chevrolet,
Holden, Opel, Buick, and Cadillac among others. The financial arm
also offers loans across the spectrum where it offers various financial
facilities for investors and customers.
Through the diversification of services and activities, the company can
spread its risks so that in the worst case scenario, other arms of the
company will still offer a shield to the company at large. Market share
of a business is the market place and area controlled by the company. Over the last few years, there has been
evidence of downfall of the General Motor’s market share. According to Helper & Henderson (2016), 2.5
billion dollars are spent by GM for the healthcare of approximately 1.1 million people. However, cheaper and
affordable cars and vehicles can be purchased in the absence of the health care expenses on each manufactured
vehicle (Helper & Henderson, 2016). In particular, the bankruptcy issue is the main problem identified, and
resulted from the loss of market share.

LEADERSHIP STYLES OF MARY T. BARRA

Mary is a charismatic leader who has a passion for leadership and in who they lead. These leaders use charm to
influence their followers. To these Mary, her subordinates are the most crucial part of leadership, and thus, they
put the people they lead first. In an organization where this approach of leadership is at play, employees believe
that they have a voice and that the leader is looking after their best interest. Thus, charismatic leaders often gain
the confidence and support of many subordinates. They have the power to make their followers relax, and have
a voice. An example of a charismatic leader is Mary T. Barra. Mary was a charismatic leader, and she achieved
to convince individuals to believe in him by leading them with a right attitude. This leader told things as they
were, gaining the approval of people. Mary had a good sense of humor, and in that way, she attracted people,
and additionally, gained their respect.

Transformational leaders are the kind of leaders who can enlighten people on their visions, and the reasons why
these people are passionate about specific things. Given the fact that these leaders have direct and honest
passions, they gain the confidence and support of individuals. Such leaders have brilliant missions which make
people follow them- they do not seek the support of subordinates. Transformational leaders use their individual
beliefs to motivate their followers and make them feel empowered. Their messages and stands inspire their
followers. An immediate example of a transformational leader is Mary had a great vision that various
individuals in her time had, but they never communicated their beliefs. She managed to empower individuals to
stand for what they believe, and act upon their beliefs. She wanted to boost the confidence of individuals to
stand for themselves.

Mary Barra is relatable and humanist. She is a caring individual with empathy hence takes the humanitarian
matters with serious consideration. Mary Barra was conscientious in the sense that she did not act
spontaneously instead, she followed her plans in serving the poor. She envisioned a better world, even though
she did not know how to achieve her goals. These were her long-term goals, and she worked consistently to
achieve them by establishing missionaries of charity and schools for the poor. It can be said that Mary Barra
derived her strength from the ability to cooperate, regardless of the social situation. She was willing to listen to
the opinions and viewpoints of others and was moderate and impartial. Mary Barra had confidence in her
abilities. She spoke against abortion and left her hometown to pursue the dream of bettering the lives of the poor
and less privileged in the society.

A CASE ISSUE ADDDRESSED BY MARRY T. BARRA

General Motors experience the problem of losing their market share to their competitors hence exposed to low
sales and consumer attraction. As a top-ranked automobile company in the world, GM makes a deal of about 9
million cars annually. General Motors is ranked third as the world’s largest business located in the United
States. Additionally, data and statistic estimate the revenue of the company’s previous to be approximately 190
billion dollars. Most of the automobile firms in the United States utilized incentive strategy to maintain the sales
during the downfall of the country’s economy. General Motors, on the other hand, experiences a sales and
marketing fall due to the costs and quality of their products.

Financial stability is the key attribute of business operations. The concept of strategic and marketing plan can
influence and affect the company either positively or negatively. Loss of market focus has severe impacts on the
sales of GM and reduces the net cash flow of the company. Recently, GM has been through financial difficulties
and is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. To understand this failure of General Motors (More, 2009). The
problem was realized from the bankruptcy declaration of the client, where the sales and revenues of the business
were rapidly reducing due to loss of both the market focus and market share.

General Motors during their bankruptcy period, the leadership in particular the CEO of the company intervened
seeking to eliminate and counter the management issue affecting the company. Therefore, management made
some decisions that w. The entire management of the company deserves the credit of claiming a win over
bankruptcy issue that GM was facing. After the crisis year of financial difficulties and problems, General
Motors has acquired the opportunity to be managed by the best probable team they ever had before. The CEO
Marry Barra took control of the company and improved the company’s sales and marketing, and therefore
liberated the country from the bankruptcy situation. A while ago, Barra presided and questioned whether the
 bankruptcy issue that hit the company experienced a few years ago
was the most challenging experience in history.

LESSON LEARNT FROM THE CASE

The general motors is one of the valuable vehicle producers in the

world and its management as enabled it to remainactive and aggressive
in the market within and around, it also continues to produce super
quality mobilizes than its competitors and thus, measure have to be
taken to check the performance of the company(Helper& Henderson,
2016). With several competitors, the key performance indicator is vital
Company Profile to have a stronghold which could determine and influence the
companies’ tremendous growth.
Contact:
General Motors due to its robust andenormous growth and high returns
GENERAL MOTORS INC.
have been the investors and shareholders favorite. The industry has
P.O. BOX 33170 several unique models designs and other developed auto devices. In
gm.com recent years, the industry has set and published certain principles that
relate to the environment. That is, in 2008 its engineers set half of it
industry to landfill-free zone in doing that the waste products would be

GENERAL MOTORS INC.

P.O. BOX 33170

reused and recycled into the manufacturing process.

References

About GM | General Motors. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.gm.com/our-company/about-gm.html

Helper, S., & Henderson, R. (2016).Management Practices, Relational Contracts, and the Decline of General
Motors Susan Helper and Rebecca Henderson.

More, R. (2009). How General Motors Lost Its Focus–And It's Way. Ivey Business Journal.