General Motors (GM), the world's leading automobile industry, was forced to file for bankruptcy protection today, which is about100th anniversary. The U.S. government will provide $30,654.38 billion in aid to GM, and Koch will be the chief restructuring officer of GM. The bankruptcy filing plans to reorganize a new enterprise within 60 to 90 days. The symbol of American industrial age-centennial GM is coming to an end now.
What happened to GM? What led to this ending?
First, the satisfaction and pride of leading position ruined GM's future. 1908, william durant, the owner of the carriage factory, founded General Motors. At first, there was only one brand, Buick, and in the next few years, it acquired more than 20 brands such as Cadillac. GM sells "at any price, for any purpose; Car as the goal, and constantly expand its brand scale. Ford Motor Company, the competitor of General Motors, initially produced only "T Ford; Car model. And GM produces many brands around the world, including 1929' s acquisition of Opel in Germany. In addition, GM also provided auto loans to consumers through its own finance company, which further expanded its sales volume and became the world's largest automaker in 193 1. However, it is the satisfaction and pride of leadership that ruined GM's future.
Second, the high pension and the medical expenses of retirees are constantly expanding. 1973 after the oil crisis, Japanese cars strengthened their export offensive by virtue of their small size and low energy consumption. 199 1 year, the share of Japanese cars in the American market exceeded 30%, resulting in huge losses for the three major American auto giants headed by GM.
Third, it is too complacent and has not strengthened its competitiveness. 13 years, Japan independently restricted the export of automobiles to the United States. Many people believe that this makes American local manufacturers such as GM take it lightly, ignore strengthening competitiveness and continue to rely on the traditional model of large cars. Many GM's fuel efficiency is low, and with the soaring gasoline price, their sales have also dropped rapidly. Since last autumn, the financial crisis has intensified, causing a fatal blow to GM and breaking the capital chain.
Supplement:
Fourth, the spirit of innovation has been lost.
In recent years, GM and even the entire American automobile industry have lost their innovative spirit. There are indeed many new varieties of cars, but almost all of them are copies of "strong power and high fuel consumption". In the "high oil price era", consumers tend to be small and efficient cars, and this American model has gradually lost its market.
Fifth, the awareness of environmental protection is backward.
The problem of high pollution caused by automobile exhaust emissions is a concern of all mankind. Statistics show that 20% of carbon dioxide in the world is produced by cars. A statistic in 2004 shows that Americans, who account for only 5% of the world's population, own 30% of the world's cars, and their carbon dioxide emissions account for 45% of the world's total car emissions. The emissions of American General Motors alone reached 99 million tons, accounting for 3 1% of the national automobile emissions. At the same time that GM filed for bankruptcy, in May of 19, Obama announced the American automobile energy saving and emission reduction plan, which requires that it be implemented from 20 12, and the standards will be raised year by year. The goal is that by 20 16, the fuel consumption of newly produced buses and light trucks in the United States will not exceed 6.62 liters per 100 km, and the carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by an average of one third compared with existing vehicles. "Not saving energy and not protecting the environment" is one of the main reasons for GM's bankruptcy.
Sixth, we made a mistake in dealing with the financial crisis.
As the financial crisis broke out in an all-round way and spread to the real economy, American consumption declined, the automobile market shrank sharply and the general capital flow dried up. For an enterprise, the most direct threat in the economic crisis is often not the loss problem, but the cash flow problem, which determines the viability of the enterprise in the crisis. But in this respect, GM missed another good opportunity. It didn't raise enough money before the credit market froze like its competitor Ford, and finally it could only watch the hope of survival disappear with the cash in hand. It can be said that the financial crisis has become the last straw to crush GM.
Seventh, the US government also has some unshirkable responsibilities.
First of all, the government has not taken any practical action on the issue of automobile energy saving. Although the government has repeatedly tried to formulate stricter fuel consumption standards, these reform measures have failed under the strong lobbying of oil industry interest groups, and American cars with high fuel consumption are still popular. Secondly, GM's extremely high employment cost reflects that the American auto industry belongs to "enterprise running society". In fact, many of its huge historical burdens should have been borne by the government or society, but the government, taking into account its own financial and political struggles and other factors, is not helpful in related reforms.
Eighth. Various wrong decisions made by the top management of the board of directors.
(1) There are too many incentives for consumers. 200 1 After the terrorist attacks in the United States, General Motors took a series of measures, such as providing consumers with five-year zero-interest credit. In the following years, GM continued to improve its incentives. A large number of cash rebate agreements and low-interest financing finally made GM breathless.
(2) Abandon the EV 1 electric vehicle project. Wagner once said that the biggest and most wrong decision he made was to give up the EV 1 electric vehicle project, which meant that GM lost its absolute lead in electric vehicle technology, which also gave Toyota Prius Hybrid a chance to catch up.
(3) Selling the controlling stake of Shanghai General Motors Corporation (GMAC). In 2006, faced with cash difficulties, GM sold its GMAC 5 1% shares to Cerberus, a private equity fund, in the form of $7.4 billion in cash and $6.6 billion in installments. However, without GMAC's controlling stake, GM will lose its strategic flexibility.
(4) overreacting to the prosperity of the truck market. With the increasing enthusiasm of consumers for sport utility vehicles (SUVs), GM has gone to an extreme: it has invested too much money in the production of SUVs, which has delayed the development of cars. As early as 2000, the Wall Street Journal warned that GM produced too many trucks, and once consumers' tastes changed, the profits in the truck market would be offset by discounts.
(5) Suppress criticism and bear the notoriety of "insecurity". Nadel's book revealed that GM's Chevrolet colville did not even meet the minimum safety standards at that time, and GM tried to suppress Nadel's exposure by smearing him, which damaged the company's reputation and image.
(6) Reduce the cost and destroy the brand. 198 1 year, GM fell into the most serious financial crisis in decades. In order to reduce the cost, the GM leadership decided to make the main products use the same production platform and parts. With the appearance of Cadillac Cimmaron, the experiment failed immediately. The high-end Cadillac Cimmaron seat cover is almost the same as the low-priced Chevrolet Cavalier. Although this strategy is beneficial to production, it blurs the characteristics of the five traditional brands founded by General Motors since the 1920s.
(7) Diversification weakens core business. In 1980s, roger smith, president of General Motors, was eager to transform General Motors into a high-tech giant. He believes that the acquisition of Hughes Aircraft Company is very important for the future development of GM, but it actually disperses GM's management right to the company's core business.
(8) The decision-making mistakes in the acquisition of Saab. 1989, GM spent $3 billion to acquire Saab. However, GM's top management did not give a convincing reason to buy the Swedish automaker, nor did it make an effective plan to make the factory profitable. At the end of 2008, Saab finally faced bankruptcy.
(9) Bet on "Oil Tiger" Hummer. 1998, GM acquired Hummer from American comprehensive companies, which made GM finally become the symbol of American automobile "gas tiger". At this time, Toyota has begun to develop the Prius. When GM bought Hummer, it was short-sighted and thought that the oil crisis had become history, and the oil price would remain low in the future. In fact, it has further worsened the situation of other GM brands. In the summer of 2008, Hummer was finally sold by GM.
(10) Crazy salary increase. 1999, signed the most expensive employment contract in the company's history after raising the bonus of the management to a record level. Lured by the soaring profits of the automobile industry and the high bonuses of management, the Federation of Trade Unions proposed salary increase negotiations. The new wage contract includes salary increase, pension increase, medical insurance increase and subsidies for workers' children to go to school. Due to the rigid law of wages and benefits, it is difficult to reduce them once they rise, which has laid a "mine" for GM's final bankruptcy. From 1995 to 2004, GM has borrowed more than1600 million dollars. In 2004, due to GM's rising pension, medical insurance and financial liabilities, credit rating agencies reduced GM's investment credit rating to the lowest level. This year, GM needs to pay a dividend of $654.38+$0.2 billion and a pension of $2.4 billion. This year, GM's profit is $3.6 billion, which is the last year GM reported profit. In the spring of 2005, GM finally completely lost its investment credit rating.