American Turnaround – Reinventing AT&T and GM and the Way We Do Business in the USA

Adriano Marques
CEO at XNV

After working for AT&T for 44 years, the author found himself with an invitation from the White House to become the chairman of General Motors and help it turn away from his bankruptcy path. Notwithstanding the fact that he knew nothing about cars, he took on the challenge and left after it paid in full it’s loans and right before its IPO.

Very interesting story, shows how GM management was blind, thinking that the crisis was the only reason why they’ve got where they were. Nobody there thought for a second that the problem could be coming from the inside, and kept trying to come up with automotive innovations while what they really needed was a serious look on how they operated the business.

Great focus on the author’s life, and very little actionable advices for companies. Gives a great lesson, though, on how management is important in a company and how much a company as big as GM could be mislead by a false sense of crisis.
Recommend its read for those who are interested in the story of AT&T and GM, and how it managed to turnaround.

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