General Motors

They finally got it right when the lady they – the board – selected as CEO was a person with actual car manufacturing experience. Too many accountants had G.M. lose its identity as a design and engineering leader, and they lost their role as a world leader in manufacturing. Ike, I believe, once said that whatever was good for G.M. was good for the country. I wish Mary Barra well.

When the U.S. government became the leader of General Motors, we were unsure of what was next. People were being released for obscure reasons and were replaced by people not familiar with manufacturing. The Lake Orion, Michigan plant, which produced the Chevy Malibu and Pontiac G6 – both great-selling vehicles – was closed and gutted by government demand and replaced by the slow-selling Chevy Sonic. Both the Pontiac and Saturn nameplates were gone. The Pontiac models sold well, and Saturn finally had a design that moved people to their showrooms. The Olds and Hummer badge closings were probably overdue, especially the Oldsmobile.

Stay true to your core. In the early days of the company, engineering ran the company, not accountants. This stayed as the norm until the mid-'80s, when accounting and one infamous account took charge of the company.

We also remember Roger Smith and what he did, which nearly killed the company prior to 2008. All of the GM vehicles looked like square boxes, and the only way to distinguish a Chevy from an Olds was by the badging. We do remember the "Cadillac" J car – a Chevy Cavalier that could have ruined the Cadillac image.