{"id":7817,"date":"2010-12-14T06:08:46","date_gmt":"2010-12-14T13:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/?p=7817"},"modified":"2016-09-19T10:21:11","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T15:21:11","slug":"general-motors-bailout-insult-customer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/general-motors-bailout-insult-customer\/7817\/","title":{"rendered":"Obvious Advice: GM CEO, Don&#8217;t Insult the Customer"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"a296a24fa2fc69ef5487857f02f111e8\" data-index=\"9\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Single Post readerboard -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8207522353004717\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1144967431\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>GM CEO Insults Customer. Say what?<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s some obvious advice: Don&#8217;t Insult the Customer. That&#8217;s good advice for everybody in a company, but that is great advice especially for the CEO. It can clearly impact <a title=\"customer retention\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/goodbye-customer-loyalty-costs-complexity-and-recovery\/1429\/\">customer retention<\/a> as well as <a title=\"customer acquisition\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-consumption-an-introduction\/2702\/\">customer acquisition<\/a>. While it&#8217;s common sense, it looks like Daniel Akerson, the CEO of General Motors (<abbr title=\"General Motors\">GM<\/abbr>) hasn&#8217;t heard that advice before.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent speech, he said the following about the customers who have bought the Toyota Prius:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We commonly refer to the geek-mobile as the Prius. And I wouldn&#8217;t be caught dead in a Prius.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Denigrating a competitor is one thing, but calling the competitor&#8217;s customers &#8220;geeky&#8221;, while not a huge insult, gives us a glimpse into his worldview that might go something like this:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>If you bought a Toyota Prius, you are geeky.<\/li>\n<li>Daniel Akerson would never be caught dead in a Toyota Prius.<\/li>\n<li>Therefore, Daniel Akerson is not Geeky.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The upshot of the Daniel Akerson&#8217;s awkward\u00a0logic might be this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you are a person who is not like Daniel Akerson, you are inferior.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I don&#8217;t think that last statement is a logical leap &#8211; he clearly has something against geeks and makes a strong point that he&#8217;s not a geek.<\/p>\n<p>Weird.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/automotive-auto-truck-replacements-parts\/b?ie=UTF8&#038;node=15684181&#038;ref_=sa_menu_apa12&#038;linkCode=shr&#038;camp=213733&#038;creative=393193&#038;tag=sixsigma09-20\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4630 aligncenter\" title=\"automotive-amazon-sale\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/automotive-amazon-sale.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"481\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/automotive-amazon-sale.jpg 481w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/automotive-amazon-sale-300x134.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 481px) 100vw, 481px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>How To Treat the Customer<\/h2>\n<p>As I said, fighting words against a competitor is fine, but against the competitor&#8217;s customers is not wise. Moreover, I&#8217;d venture to guess that many of customers that own a Toyota probably also own a General Motors vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>While &#8220;geek&#8221; is not a massive insult, it is a form of judgment. And, public judgment coming from the mouth of a CEO is not prudent or wise. If he can be like that in public, how are people treated inside the walls of GM?<\/p>\n<p>And, no, what he said is not opinion &#8211; it is judgment. Opinion is usually supported by facts and feelings. What Daniel Akerson said is a form of judgment because he, in effect, is demonizing the customers that have bought a Toyota Prius by putting them in a convenient bucket and labeling them a &#8220;geeky&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h2>General Motors (<abbr title=\"General Motors\">GM<\/abbr>) Bailout<\/h2>\n<p>Let&#8217;s revisit the history of <abbr title=\"General Motors\">GM<\/abbr>, including the <abbr title=\"General Motors\">GM<\/abbr> Bailout. Below is a rough top-level summary (source: http:\/\/goo.gl\/PCQqx):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>GM is still Government Motors.<\/li>\n<li>The US Government converted $45.3 billion in loans to a 70% ownership position.<\/li>\n<li>The Canadian Government converted an $8.1 billion stake into 12% ownership.<\/li>\n<li>GM lost $3.4 billion in the 4th quarter of 2009.<\/li>\n<li>GM still has $15 billion in debt.<\/li>\n<li>GM has $27 billion in unfunded\u00a0pension liabilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now here is a more comprehensive timeline, from the same source as above:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>$12 billion: The amount of money General Motors (<abbr title=\"General Motors\">GM<\/abbr>) requested in a loan plan submitted to U.S. Treasury Department on Dec. 2, 2008, according to CNN. Ten days later, GM submitted an updated version of the plan requesting $22.5 billion in funding.<\/li>\n<li>$50 billion: The amount of total bailout money <abbr title=\"General Motors\">GM<\/abbr> has received from American taxpayers since 2008, according to CBS News.<\/li>\n<li>$7.4 billion: The amount of money, including interest and dividends, the government has recovered from <abbr title=\"General Motors\">GM<\/abbr> thus far, according to The New York Times.<\/li>\n<li>$34: The initial public offering for <abbr title=\"General Motors\">GM<\/abbr> shares this afternoon. Forbes predicted the <abbr title=\"initial public offering\">IPO<\/abbr> would be &#8220;likely to wind up as the largest initial public offering in history Wednesday and for the U.S. Treasury.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>$23.1 billion: The amount of money raised by the <abbr title=\"initial public offering\">IPO<\/abbr>, according to The New York Times.<\/li>\n<li>1.6, 1.7 and 1.8 percent: The percentage rise today in the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&amp;P 500 and the Nasdaq composite, respectively.<\/li>\n<li>1.4 million: The number of jobs saved by the government bailout of General Motors, Chrysler and other car companies, according to the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Several years&#8221;: The amount of time <abbr title=\"General Motors\">GM<\/abbr> CEO Dan Akerson said it would take for the company to pay back taxpayers.<\/li>\n<li>$1.7 million: Akerson&#8217;s yearly salary. He also receives $5.3 million in GM stock.<\/li>\n<li>$12,200: The cost, per car, of the GM bailout to taxpayers, according to a report by the National Taxpayer&#8217;s Union.<\/li>\n<li>3.8: The number of retired workers or dependents for every active worker at <abbr title=\"General Motors\">GM<\/abbr>, according to the Heritage Foundation. In comparison, there are two dependents at Chrysler and 1.6 at Ford. This means GM dependents face a higher burden than those at other companies.<\/li>\n<li>$2,000: The cost of features that American companies need to cut from their cars to compete with foreign companies, according to Mitt Romney&#8217;s estimate in 2008.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As you can see above, <abbr title=\"General Motors\">GM<\/abbr> is not out of the woods yet; for a company that is largely still owned by the US Government, why is the <abbr title=\"chief executive officer\">CEO<\/abbr> of General Motors, Daniel Akerson, actiing so haughty? The truth is, he can&#8217;t afford to treat any customer poorly.<\/p>\n<p>Lesson Learned: Don&#8217;t Insult the Customer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/automotive-auto-truck-replacements-parts\/b?ie=UTF8&#038;node=15684181&#038;ref_=sa_menu_apa12&#038;linkCode=shr&#038;camp=213733&#038;creative=393193&#038;tag=sixsigma09-20\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4630 aligncenter\" title=\"automotive-amazon-sale\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/automotive-amazon-sale.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"481\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/automotive-amazon-sale.jpg 481w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/automotive-amazon-sale-300x134.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 481px) 100vw, 481px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GM CEO Insults Customer. Say what? Here&#8217;s some obvious advice: Don&#8217;t Insult the Customer. That&#8217;s good advice for everybody in a company, but that is great advice especially for the CEO. It can clearly impact customer retention as well as customer acquisition. While it&#8217;s common sense, it looks like Daniel Akerson, the CEO of General [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12327,"featured_media":10744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>GM CEO Insults Customer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Daniel Akerson, GM CEO Insults Customer - calling the customer &quot;Geeky&quot;, and not in a positive way.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GM CEO Insults Customer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Daniel Akerson, GM CEO Insults Customer - calling the customer &quot;Geeky&quot;, and not in a positive way.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/general-motors-bailout-insult-customer\/7817\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OpEx Learning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/get.shmula\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-14T13:08:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-19T15:21:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/geek-customer-service.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"301\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Uday Kawar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@shmula\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@shmula\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Uday Kawar\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/general-motors-bailout-insult-customer\/7817\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/general-motors-bailout-insult-customer\/7817\/\",\"name\":\"GM CEO Insults Customer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/general-motors-bailout-insult-customer\/7817\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/general-motors-bailout-insult-customer\/7817\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/geek-customer-service.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-12-14T13:08:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-19T15:21:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#\/schema\/person\/9335b5223b67189b35bda7d6be11c3fd\"},\"description\":\"Daniel Akerson, GM CEO Insults Customer - 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