GM’s Barra Closes Out 10th Year With Big Challenges Ahead

Mary Barra is the second longest-tenured CEO at General Motors. As she closes out her 10th year, she faces a bumpy forecast for EVs, her relationship with incoming President Donald Trump, the influence of Elon Musk and enormous challenges in China.

David Kiley, Senior Editor

December 12, 2024

6 Min Read
Barra’s tenure at GM has been mostly one to admire and benchmark.

DETROIT – Mary Barra is closing out her 10th year as CEO of General Motors with several challenges looming: the bumpy transition to EVs; restructuring GM’s China operations; a history of conflict with incoming President Donal Trump; and a change of direction in the company’s autonomous-driving investments.

Barra addressed the issues at a meeting with media at a gathering of the Automotive Press Assn. here.

About the reboot of the Trump Admin., Barra acknowledges some friction in Trump’s first term, especially over the closing of GM’s Lordstown, OH, plant, but says she looks forward to meeting with Trump and his policy advisers. "I think we’re very goal-aligned," Barra says. "We want a strong economy. We want a strong manufacturing base in this country. We agree automotive jobs are important. I think there’s a lot that we could work on. But there’s going to be changes.”

Asked how she feels about a competitor, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, having such an influential role in auto industry policy, Barra says: “I can’t really speak to his (Musk’s) intentions, but I do know Elon, and he and I have talked on a number of occasions. If you look at some of the bureaucracy that is hampering many industries and organizations...there is room for streamlining."

Barra points to the intentions of Musk and other Trump choices to make permitting of everything from plants to EV chargers faster as a positive change.

GM just announced a $5 billion charge in the fourth quarter to pay for restructuring costs in China, and says the automaker is committed to staying in the communist country.

Barra also announced this week that the company has changed direction with regard to its investments in the Cruise robo-taxi venture on which it has spent billions. Barra says she decided robo-taxis are not GM’s core business, but learnings from Cruise will be applied to autonomous-driving technology in GM’s passenger vehicles.

A Decade in the Rearview Mirror

Barra has led General Motors as CEO since January 2014, marking over a decade of significant transformation and achievement at the automaker. She is also GM’s longest-tenured CEO since Alfred Sloan.

Barra took over a GM that had already gone through a bankruptcy reorganization, shedding the legacy expenses and obligations that had long burdened the automaker’s cash flow and earnings.

Some of the heavy lifting of reorganization was led by two CEOs from outside the company and industry: Dan Akerson (2010-2014) and Edward Whitacre Jr. (2009-2010). But Barra was a key figure working under Akerson in strategizing the future and was tapped as his successor to continue the work.

Barra, an engineer by education, ascended GM’s ranks, touching numerous parts of the business, from running a plant to human resources. This path differed markedly from many of her predecessors – G. Richard Wagoner Jr., John “Jack” Smith and Roger Smith, to name three, who rose to the CEO’s office through the company’s Treasury office. It was thought in those days that one had to be a finance expert to run GM rather than a business leader.

As she closes out her 10th year, let’s look at her influence, legacy and performance.

  1. Focus and Efficiency. Barra has focused GM on building quality vehicles and maintaining industry-leading efficiency. Under Wagoner, GM’s GMAC division became one of the country’s leading mortgage companies. Roger Smith acquired information technology company EDS (Electronic Data Systems). Prior to her taking over, but with her input, GM shed marginal brands – Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Hummer – that were bogging down the company’s efficiency and enterprise performance. Later, she sold GM Europe to what would become Stellantis, turning the page on a perennial money-losing region. Today, GM leads all legacy automakers in headcount-to-vehicles-produced efficiency, producing 37 vehicles per employee, compared with 29 for Toyota and 14 for Volkswagen.

  2. Culture Transformation. Barra is the first woman to lead GM, and the first woman to lead a major automaker. By all accounts, the company has become a model in the area of diversity-equity-inclusion management practices. Despite the current backlash against DEI by business leaders like Tesla’s Musk and many politicians, Barra’s commitment shows DEI practices are not just good citizenship, but smart business.

  3. EV Transition: While setting an aggressive agenda to transform GM’s lineup to EVs, she has kept the company agile enough to adapt to the slowdown in EV demand and rollback in EV mandates while keeping competitive offerings as GM protects its robust profits from gasoline-powered pickups and SUVs. GM set an EV sales record in the third quarter of this year, second in sales to Tesla.

  4. Growth. GM reported revenue of $147 billion in 2018, the last year before a UAW strike and two years before the COVID pandemic curtailed growth. Since then, GM has booked $127 billion (2021), $157 billion (2022) and $171 billion (2023).

  5. Shareholder Return: Investors would have done better investing in Tesla rather than GM over the past 10 years, but they also would have been better off investing in GM than cross-town rival Ford. Considering both stock price appreciation and cumulative dividends, total shareholder return for GM is 71.4% versus a decline of 10.2% for Ford over the same period. Under Barra’s leadership, GM beat Wall Street earnings expectations 37 out of 38 quarters.

  6. Strategic Partnerships and Market Expansion: GM has had a long history of forging disastrous joint ventures, turning to companies like Suzuki, Isuzu, Subaru, Fiat and Toyota to supply or provide GM with what it could not do on its own. Barra has overseen strategic partnerships, such as collaborating with Honda on EV development – with Honda utilizing GM’s Ultium EV platform – and now a new and developing JV with Hyundai Group.

  7. Product Innovation and Quality: GM has streamlined its vehicle platforms and emphasized design and quality, resulting in a more competitive and appealing product lineup. In J.D. Power’s 2024 Initial Quality Study, Chevrolet ranked second overall with a score of 160 problems per 100 vehicles (PP100), outperforming the industry average of 195 PP100. Buick also performed well, securing the fifth position with 164 PP100. GM led the industry with six model-level awards, the highest among automakers. In J.D. Power’s Vehicle Dependability Study, Chevrolet ranked fourth overall with a score of 174 PP100, better than the industry average of 190 PP100. Buick ranked third with 149 PP100, showcasing GM's focus on long-term reliability.

  8. Poise Under Fire: Barra has effectively navigated GM through various challenges, including restructuring operations in China, addressing issues within the Cruise autonomous-vehicle unit and addressing the ignition-failure recall and government investigation that she faced early in her tenure. Wall Street analysts have noted her ability to manage crises and implement strategic changes as a core strength.

  9. Smart Investments in Hydrogen: Barra has continued to make smart investments in hydrogen power technology that began at GM in the 1960s. Despite lack of returns into the 1990s and 2000s, Barra recognizes that scaled hydrogen power is an inevitability that could be a significant revenue stream for GM. Geopolitical conflicts with fossil fuels at their core have moved the U.S., the EU and China to advance development of hydrogen as a significant energy source for stationary power and mobility. GM is well-positioned to profit from the shift.

Commitment to Modernity: Before Barra calls it a day as CEO, she will have moved GM out of its Renaissance Center headquarters in Detroit, known for its exterior that dominates the Detroit skyline but also an interior architecture that can best be described as labyrinthine. She has migrated many white-collar workers to the Warren, MI, Tech Center in which she has invested millions to modernize, and committed GM to occupy considerable office space in downtown Detroit in the new Hudson’s Detroit complex.

About the Author

David Kiley

Senior Editor, WardsAuto

David Kiley is an award winning journalist. Prior to joining WardsAuto, Kiley held senior editorial posts at USA Today, Businessweek, AOL Autos/Autoblog and Adweek, as well as being a contributor to Forbes, Fortune, Popular Mechanics and more.

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