Jerry Flint, Forbes auto industry columnist, is a big fan of Lutz. Even to the point of making him CEO if Rick Wagoner should step down:
If it were up to me, Bob would be the new GM boss. Bob, of course, is Robert Lutz, GM's vice chairman in charge of global product development. He's responsible for the vast improvements we are beginning to see in GM vehicles. Lutz knows the car business as no other American: He was an executive vice president at Ford Motor and president of Chrysler. In his younger days, he led the great BMW sales charge in Europe. He isn't a college-trained engineer--for which some snub him--but a self-taught car guy. He's Detroit's best, a hot driver who also owns a jet fighter and a helicopter, an ex-U.S. Marine fighter pilot and the best-looking 74-year-old I know.
Ah, there's the rub. He's 74.
But age isn't the only thing working against him:
Lutz is not a backstabber, and this is a business in which backstabbing is fine art. He's loyal to the core, and he won't push Wagoner down the stairs.
Lutz has run into some problems at GM, which is natural for someone who attracts the press like a rock 'n' roll god. In an age when public relations departments carefully coach and script every public word uttered by their chief executives, Lutz never learned how to be politically correct. Sometimes Lutz speaks with too much candor, such as the time last year when he called Pontiac and Buick damaged brands--which, of course, is the truth. Dealers thought Lutz wanted to kill Pontiac and Buick, and they went berserk. In fact, Bob was working hard to save those nameplates, but he was just being honest.
Then Flint writes this further down the piece:
His immediate effect on GM was electric. The company pushed out Ron Zarrella, the generally despised president of North American Operations, and junked its ridiculous product-development program, which had made real product development all but impossible. For the first time in ten years, car people began to have some leverage over the accounting and marketing people at GM.
Even with Lutz, GM is still struggling. I say that without Lutz, the company wouldn't have a chance. Today the product is improving, quality is up, designs are much better, the interiors are good and the fit and finishes are top flight. So far, there haven't been any "gotta have" cars--to use a Lutz term--but many of the new vehicles are at least moderately successful. The new big trucks are world class.
And closes with this:
I'm not saying Lutz will become head of General Motors. But I'll tell you this: If he did, they'd have a "Semper Fi" leader who would say "follow me" and mean it. And people would follow him.
GM would come back--or go down fighting, not whimpering.
Moses was 120 when he led his people to the promised land.
So why not Bob?
Why not? Well, I hope it won't come to GM getting a new CEO. If it does, I'd be willing to see Lutz get the job.
