Driving IT Innovation at General Motors - GM's Finances and Future (
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GM's stock was down last month [March], and
estimates were not good for the rest of this year, even for 2009. Is there
something you can do in IT to help?
We
already are. This business is running much more efficiently. Every year, this
business is reducing cost. Billions of dollars have come out of the cost
structure because of the process changes.
One issue is, is the United States going into a severe recession, and will it affect
the rest of the world? Or does that not happen anymore? The other question is
oil prices and how high they will go.
Right
now, we don't see the rest of the world affected by the U.S.
problem. Most companies are looking for an improvement in the second half of the
year. If that doesn't happen, then people will be really concerned. Some people
are saying it's starting to look like it might not happen. That's the issue.
What
are we doing? Every part of our company has the ability to cut costs, thanks to
globalization. So GM will continue to cut costs this year. We have the flexibility
throughout the world to do that.
Let's
say you do have a recession in the United States
and it doesn't affect the rest of the world. Maybe you then worry about getting
vehicles to the other parts of the world. GM has the opportunity to do that.
That's the benefit that IT has given the company.
How do
you sponsor new technologies such as social networks and blogging within GM?
I
have a chief systems and technology officer whose job it is to drive the next
generation of technology development within the company. He has about 400
architects throughout the world. On Thursdays, they all link together.
I
have all the world's IT leaders bringing in new technology every day. If they
have new technology, I know about it before anybody. I know all about AT&T's
technology because I have their R&D people sitting here.
I
don't have to beg anybody to come there. They're already here. The trouble is I
might get too much of that crap. We use wikis and blogs up the kazoo here. It's
our 100th anniversary, and it's all being done electronically on blogs and
whatever.
I
had a thing last year, where every company had to come in and give their vision
for 2012.
We have a portfolio of investment for information
technology. The chief systems and technology officer has money to invest in
small companies to bring in new technology. He is involved with venture capital
companies like Kleiner Perkins [Caufield & Byers].
I
have to be honest with you. It's been disappointing for those smaller companies
until about a year ago. Because everyone was working on infrastructure
integration, there weren't very many new transformational things coming out.
Also, venture capitalists were moving away from IT innovation to other areas
like alternative energy. Now, I'm starting to see it come back.
Where would you place GM with regard to its
competitors in terms of IT performance?
Our
IT costs as a percentage of revenue are one of the lowest by far. Ten years
ago, we were the highest.
In this model, I have 1,500 people that are
top-notch business and IT experts. None of them code; they are IT brokers. They
don't worry about having more computing centersthey have a different mentality
just because of the model. If they had 1,000 programmers they would want to
build new systems whether they changed the business or not. I've been around 40
years. I did the same thing.
We're very, very low, and we need to be. At the
same time, are we spending enough for innovation to change the business? Yes.
IT Management 
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