Paul Ingrassia covered GM for the Wall Street Journal and earned a Pulitzer Prize for the work he did on the subject. Ingrassia has a book coming out in the near future, and yesterday he wrote a guest editorial for the WSJ on the firing/resignation of Fritz Henderson. He believes it to be the right move.
Ingrassia thinks that the hiring of Henderson was flawed and doomed from the start because he was a product of the thinking and direction that got the company into the dire straights that it finds itself in today. He is also in agreement with the board of directors in the thought that the new leader needs to be someone from outside the company.
We’d suggest that the next figurehead come equipped with large brass ones and the ability to survive in business environment that would swallow others whole. With Ed Whitacre saying that the search for a leader may take upwards of a year, we think there will be lots to speculate on and debate about.
