This is sure to raise eyebrows: in a rather surprising move, Cadillac CEO Johan de Nysschen has received permission to move headquarters from Detroit to New York City next year in a plan that aims to make Cadillac more autonomous from the regular schedule at General Motors. The plan isn’t unheard of, and has been done in the past by several other premium manufacturers. The idea is to get Caddy away from the corporate groupthink that has always plagued GM and to immerse the workers in a “premium lifestyle” situation that is more in-tune with the lifestyles that the targeted markets Cadillac wants to sell to.
According to General Motors President Dan Amman, the move will “provide Cadillac with more freedom to cultivate the brand in pursuit of further global growth. Cadillac’s mission is to reinstate the brand to a preeminent position among global luxury brands, a bold challenge requiring a distinct and focused new organization. More than a division or brand, Cadillac is becoming a center of excellence for our company.”
While getting away from the corporate world at GM is certainly a great idea, working out of a loft apartment-style office building in SoHo (no, I’m not joking about that one) is a questionable decision, as well as the idea that immersing the 120 workers that are being shipped to NYC in a premium lifestyle arena is going to assist with helping the flagging sales of Cadillacs, even though the lineup is good and getting better year after year. Just a suggestion from our quaint and humble little corner of the automotive world: focus on the cars and not so much the lifestyle. The truth is that some of the Art & Science designs are starting to show their age. The ATS is a handsome coupe, the CTS has been a great benchmark, the Escalade doesn’t need help selling, and if the upcoming large sedan looks even remotely like the Elmiraj concept, I’m willing to bet that the world will sit up and take notice. In fact, de Nysschen and Cadillac, if you actually produced a limited run of Elmiraj in it’s coupe configuration as a halo car, you’d have the world’s undivided attention. You’re Cadillac. Act like it and show the world who to follow.
A classic waste of time and resources. A move will simply take a year’s worth of focus away from the product and place it on the disruption.
A fortunate tool using corporate money to make a personal statement, managed by a corporate boss so enamoured with “getting him” that she will allow such idiocy to be put into action.
Good response . Accurate and to the point but missing one crucial aspect of the idiocracy of this move ;
That being … the Cadillac division is 2nd only to the Corvette division in annual revenues lost ( e.g. they are anything but profitable ) in the rapidly waning GM empire .
Simple fact is beyond an occasional New Model bump nobody wants or is buying Cadillacs Eurosnob wanna be rebadged Chevys – OPELS – Daewoo and Holdens in Cadillac party dresses .
So why waste money GM does not have on this move .. along with doing even further damage to Detroit’s flagging economy now up to its nose in bankruptcy ?
All just to save a couple of corporate tax dollars ? [ which is the real reason behind the move .. not marketing etc ]
Oh hell . Why am I even contemplating this ? GM for the last 40 years has made a habit of being ;
” Penny Wise and a few Billion Dollars Foolish “
Moving to New York is a bald-faced grab for the burgeoning hipster crowd.
I agree with the need to immerse some of the creative/marketing types in the culture of your desired customers, but the key words here are “desired customers”
I mean, really, the car ownership percentage in SoHo or Manhattan as a whole has got to be under 20%.
Los Angles would have made much, more sense. Especially considering that the Chinese market is the future.
They can move it to the moon for all I care. It’ll still be an over priced Chevy.
Focus on the cars, not the “potential” hipster crowd that would rather drive a Prius.
I dunno. I see some merit in the idea of getting away from the main corporate body and developing a company culture elsewhere. They can focus on how to rebuild Cadillac – which is no longer rebadged Chevy – into the world class brand it used to be. Even if Caddy never goes head to head with the S class or 7 series, there is room to improve it’s image and slowly fix it.
Perhaps Nyschenn reasonably wants a bit of space to do this.