
Lobbyists
During the bankruptcy process last year, GM internalized its lobbying activities, or rather more specifically, they canned a significant portion their $10 million+ external lobby operation. It was unclear at the time if this was just part of the streamlining of the whole company, or simply a move to avoid a public black eye over a potential conflict.
Since then however, we have received news that GM has rehired the firms of Greenberg Traurig and the Duberstein Group, while also bringing onboard GrayLoeffler, and is continuing its relationship with the Washington Tax Group. Between these four noted firms, they have 18 lobbyists registered to represent GM.
The main job of these lobby groups is to win favors for GM in the form of tax breaks, special allowances and subsidies/grants over and above the $50-odd billion GM has already received.
Executive Reshuffle
The news on the external lobbying came to light at a time when GM itself was reshuffling its executive…again. This time in the form of its internal lobbying division. It would seem that Ed Whitacre’s message of a ‘calming of the storm’ at the executive level at GM after the ousting of then CEO Fritz Henderson, is not becoming a reality, as the purge continues.
Last week, GM announced the replacement of its head lobbyist/vice president of government relations, Ken Cole for two of Ed Whitacre’s poker playing buddies ex-employees at AT&T, namely John T. Montford, who is now senior advisor to the GM Chairman and CEO (of which, Mr. Whitacre seems to currently have a whole legion of ‘advisors’ at his disposal), and Robert E. Ferguson, who takes over the role of vice president of Government Relations.
On a personal note, I am all for a good shakeup. I met the news of the dismissal of Brent Dewar from the head of Chevrolet with a smile, and I confess to uttering a ‘huzzah’ or two when GM’s glorious disaster in charge of marketing that was Mark LaNeve left the building.
However, firing Ken Cole, who oversaw (and some say was the architect) of the whole ‘lets go to the government and get some ‘interm’ money, then go back again and get more ‘interm’ money, then tell them to look at all the money they foolishly gave us and get them to protect that money with more money…and then have them rinse us through bankruptcy, while telling them to forget all that ‘interm’ money they just gave us…and also throw us a whole bunch more ‘new’ money as we come out of bankruptcy so we are ‘viable’ for years to come’ plan seems like firing Michael Jordan off your team because you know a couple guys that used to play ball with you back in the day that were pretty good.
/just saying
CEO Rumor Du Jour
Not sure how this rumor got started (Okay, actually I do) but how it got picked up around the interwebs as legitimate is beyond me.
Basically, the story goes like this; GM wants to get a high profile, competent CEO installed at some point to not only lead the company into the future, but sell ‘the tar’ out of the upcoming (at some point) IPO. Enter current COO of Apple, Tim Cook. /tada, mission accomplished
Where it all breaks down is when you look at accountability…and reason. For starters, the source is some random ‘tipster’ that has indicated that he has a ‘inside’ source at a third party head hunter firm that says Cook is a top candidate for GM…and that he would be willing to leave Apple now that Steve Jobs is back running the show.
Beside the obvious ‘dubious’ source of a know a guy, who knows a guy. Why would Tim Cook leave his role as COO at Apple? He has been running the day to day operations there since Jobs when down with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004, and even temporarily took over as the interm CEO roll while the rest of the world was under a ‘Steve Jobs/Apple Deathwatch.’ Needless to say, neither happened, and he led the company out from a multi-year low around $80 right back up to $140, well on its way to a all-time high this past December. At this point I am unsure that Tim Cook is not more Apple than Steve Jobs is.
And for his trouble keeping Jobs seat warm, Mr. Cook has gotten paid…and with a capital ‘P’. He has raked in tens of millions the last couple years, and just looking at his disclosures over his tenure, he has earned/sold over $100 million in Apple stock since his arrival. Not to mention he looks to have a lock on someday owning the ‘official’ CEO title. How long can/will Steve jobs really keep that seat filled?
Is GM willing to pay Cook $30 million a year, with a Nardelli-esque severance package? Would Cook even take that? Would Apple match any exorbitant price to keep him in house? Does Cook, who has only ever worked in the tech sector, even have the skill set to make a troubled automaker fly?
If somehow lightning did strike the Renaissance Center (like a dozen times) and Cook came onboard, GM certainly could boast having a who’s who of powerhouse executives, with Microsoft’s ex-CFO (Liddell), Apple’s ex-COO as CEO, and AT&T’s ex-chief Whitacre serving as President.
/but those three in the same room would surely cause the universe to implode.