What Were You Thinking?
The big three automakers went to the hill this past week to ask Congress for a bridge loan of twenty-five billion dollars. Believing that they could not be denied, these CEOs were ill-prepared to face the inquistion of lawmakers and too arrogant to be shamed by Congressional remarks and comments to show humility. LA Times reported that the CEOs of Chrysler, GM and Ford ran into a wall of skepticism from a broad cross-section of lawmakers concerned about the environment, unions and Japanese auto plants in their home states; all topics that the Big Three seemed to dismissively sidestep with a fancy dance. As I watched this story unfold over the last few days on television, I couldn’t help but wonder, what were they thinking? These are very highly-paid, highly compensated CEOs of the three major American automakers. These are men who are responsible for making dynamic decisions that affect not just their employees, but support businesses, educators, home builders, politics, environment and the list goes on. The tentacles of the auto industry are many and deep and they are embedded in just about everything that is American. Yet, these Autogods were totally clueless. In fact, I see a whole new genre of dumb jokes that has nothing to do with blondes, on the horizon. Why did they fly in on their private jets and face Congress without a new and improved game plan? Read more »