DETROIT — When auto-industry veteran Bob Lutz returned to General Motors in 2001 after 30 years with other companies, he quickly grew tired of GM’s numbers-oriented bureaucracy, printing up post-it notes that asked, “Says Who?” Lutz stuck his credo on walls and bulletin boards as he publicly challenged the lumbering corporate culture.
In announcing another sudden management overhaul Friday, GM chairman and acting chief executive Ed Whitacre Jr. was speaking Lutz’s words when he told employees that the bureaucracy needs to end and they can take reasonable risks without fear of being fired.
“We want you to step up. We don’t want any bureaucracy,” Whitacre said in his folksy Texas drawl to about 800 GM workers.
“We’re not going to make it if you won’t take a risk,” he said in the address, which was transmitted to employees worldwide on the Internet.
Whitacre, 68, who has been frustrated with the pace of change, appointed the 77-year-old Lutz as a top adviser, creating an alliance of hard-charging veteran executives to lead the troubled company.
The former CEO of AT&T Inc., Whitacre heads a board that just pushed out CEO Fritz Henderson after only eight months in office.
In his 45-minute speech, Whitacre reversed several changes that Henderson made, restoring the position of North American president and rejoining sales and marketing, which had been split in two.
