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Case Study

Honeymoon interrupted: Mary Barra, CEO, GM (B)

By Michael D. Watkins and Lisa Simone Duke

5 pages

June 2014

Reference: IMD-7-1566

It had been two months since Mary Barra had faced two days of questioning in both the US Senate and House of Representatives. After a no-holds-barred investigation by Anton Valukas of Jenner & Block, the report into the ignition switch fault at GM was made public. It made grim reading – showing a company with a deeply troubled culture, including rigid silos, lack of accountability, and skewed priorities. Based on the report, Barra announces firings and other measures.

Learning Objective

1) To illustrate the challenges facing a newly-appointed CEO facing a major crisis. 2) To highlight how a company’s culture can distort organizational decision-making and contribute to a major safety failure costing lives. 3) To explore the extent to which the failure was a “predictable surprise” and how it might have been avoided. 4) To discuss how to approach changing a “toxic” culture in a large and complex organization.

Keywords

Leadership, Transition, Chief Executive Officer, Succession

Settings

Northern America, United States of America
General Motors, Automotive, Automobiles
April to June 2014

Type

Published Sources

Available Languages

English

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