GM CEO Decries Loose Lipped Workers
Dan Akerson, CEO of General Motors, is more than a little upset that workers seem to be disloyal to their employer, something he made clear during an employee meeting and conference call on Thursday.
“We have the right to expect that people will behave with integrity,” Akerson said. “And when they don’t, we can’t tolerate it, and we won’t.”
Now, he says employees will be asked to sign a document called “Winning with Integrity,” which a company spokesperson said has actually been in place for more than a decade within the company. Employees are required to read it annually, answer 10 questions about possible conflicts of interest and to verify that they understand it.
Among other things, Akerson’s remarks were pointed directly at information leaks about marketing executive Joel Ewanick’s dismissal after his $559 million sponsorship agreement with soccer franchise Manchester United.
He also said an employee filmed the interior of one of the company’s new trucks and posted it online. “That hurts us. That helps the competition,” he said.
[Source: Detroit News]
Luke is an energetic automotive journalist who spends his time covering industry news and crawling the internet for the latest breaking story. When he isn't in the office, Luke can be found obsessively browsing used car listings, drinking scotch at his favorite bar and dreaming of what to drive next, though the list grows a lot faster than his bank account. He's always on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> looking for a good car conversation. Find Luke on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> and <A title="Luke on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/112531385961538774338?rel=author">Google+</A>.
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...not even in the automotive industry, but once a vehicle has been through the concept and auto-show stages and is in production, how can an employee filming the interior of the vehicle help competitors? Any show stopping interior features would have been something GM would have been blabbing about already. I like GM products (2 of my 4 vehicles are GM) but i fail to see how employees are doing anything that's worse than what GM's own marketing does - shows their hand YEARS before its ready. (Avalanche, Camaro, Volt, 7thgen Corvette)