DETROIT - How many marketing reorganizations has General Motors tried since I began covering this business in 1996? Frankly, to paraphrase Harry Callahan, in all this confusion, I've lost count myself. The question is, does GM feel lucky today?
That's taking the Dirty Harry analogy a bit too far. There's no luck involved in this reorganization. It's another attempt to handle too many divisions for the current market, one that's necessary because U.S. dealers just won't let GM kill any more divisions like it did with Oldsmobile earlier this decade.
The reorganization splits GM into four retail channels: Chevrolet, Saturn, Buick-Pontiac-Hummer, and Premium, consisting of Cadillac, Hummer and Saab. The more seasoned enthusiasts among you remember Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac and Buick-Olds-Pontiac channels.
The logical conclusion to all this is if GM finds the right time to kill a division, it can do so within one or both of those tripled sales channels so long as it provides dealers with enough profitable models from another division.
I vote to kill Hummer. It's easy; in the current SUV market, Cadillac-Hummer-Saab dealers would have all the sport/utilities they need among the Escalades and the upcoming small Theta-plus Cadillac and Saab crossovers. The U.S. military will soon replace the HMMV and besides, it doesn't have the right image anymore. This structure allows Buick, conversely, to thrive with three upper-middle priced models, so long as Buick dealers also get fresh shipments of popularly priced Pontiacs.
The reorg is the brainchild of Mark LaNeve (pictured), North American veep for sales, service and marketing, who has proved himself to be as valuable to GM as Bob Lutz, Ed Welburn, Rick Wagoner or Fritz Henderson. LaNeve has been a staple on Motor Trend's Power List, ranking 25 this year. If this reorganization works as well as it looks on paper, he should move up a few notches by next February.
The reorg also gives three newly appointed "divisional" vice presidents a bit more power, in the tradition of the divisional general managers in the postwar period. The three new North American vice presidents are Ed Peper, who remains in charge of Chevy, Susan Docherty, who leads Buick-Pontiac-GMC and Mark McNabb for the Premium Channel.
Jim Bunnell was general manager of Buick-Pontiac-GMC and he becomes exec director of the Channel Support Group. Jill Lajdziak remains Saturn general manager.