The ink was barely dry on the pixels of GM's announcement that CEO Dan Akerson had picked Barra, the company's product chief, to succeed him before some outside observers began wringing their hands about what might happen now that one of the thickest glass ceilings in the world finally has been shattered.
In this predictable but clueless meme, somehow the worry is that GM or the industry or the world will start playing Whac-a-Mole with the new CEO because she's got long hair.
"I do hope that Barra doesn't fall prey to excessive scrutiny -- as did Carly Fiorina [as CEO of Hewlett-Packard] -- because she is so visible as the first female CEO of GM," fretted Kathy Kram, a self-professed "authority on gender and leadership" at Boston University. "That would not be helpful for her, for the company, or for those of us who want to see more diversity in the C-suite."
With Akerson's move, GM now has given all the "diversity in the C-suite" that it can give. The company is finally free of the stain of government ownership left over from the bailout four years ago. Arguably it enjoys its best lineup of products, brands, marketing and executive talent ever. This company car is well-primed for a long drive by Mary Barra.
And after she rose mightily through the testosterone-laced jungle of the automotive industry and emerged on top, with its biggest job in hand, does anyone really have to worry about Barra somehow devolving into a delicate flower of leadership vulnerability once she is in place as GM's CEO? I don't think so.
Because here's the thing: Barra didn't get the job because she's a woman. She got the job because of her product prowess, picking up where vaunted former Vice Chairman Bob Lutz left off. The new Chevrolet Silverado, widely hailed new Cadillac ATS and now the new CTS, the radically restyled new Chevrolet Corvette, even the surprisingly worthy new Chevrolet Impala -- all these vehicles, to one extent or another, bear Barra's marks despite the fact that they were hatched before her tenure. They're all big successes that Lutz, in retirement, now can lay only fading claim to. And that's the main reason Akerson chose Barra.
She also, by reports, has managed to streamline major product-development decisions and move important programs along more quickly, such as one that has provieded a new family of more fuel-efficient engines for use in vehicles around the globe.
Did Akerson believe selecting her to succeed him might help cement a leadership legacy that is drawing to an end more quickly than he'd planned because of his wife's illness? Probably. But insiders said Akerson has liked Barra as the next chief for some time because she's a "car guy" and because of her accomplishments, not for burnishing his CV as a progressive industrialist.
And look at Akerson's alternatives, each of which would have carried a down side as his successor, whereas Barra probably represented the cleanest shot at an unassailable choice:
- Mark Reuss, head of GM's North American operations, is very accomplished as well and widely liked inside the company. But more than the other three candidates, he is an exemplar of "old school" GM and may have been disqualified almost solely on that basis by a current CEO who considers himself something of an iconoclast and whose biggest experience was in the telecom business, of all things.
- Dan Ammann, chief financial officer, helped preside over the financial re-engineering of GM during a hugely difficult time despite the fact that it came during a four-year recovery. But his choice might have been seen as retrograde because he's a "bean counter" in the tradition of most GM CEOs -- in a new era when an emphasis on product and marketing has taken over a company and an industry that have become much more financially streamlined. Also, he's only 41 years old.
- Steve Girsky, vice chairman, simply may have been too associated with the bailout that GM finally now has just left behind.
So now, GM will benefit not only from all the other things it's doing right but also from the welcome attention generated by having a woman lead a global automaker for the first time.
And for sure, neither Akerson nor anyone else is worrying that Barra will prove to be some dainty thing who could wilt under "excessive scrutiny."
It's true that there might be no more-scrutinized woman in the world over the next few years (unless Hillary Clinton becomes the next U.S. president). But from everything she's shown so far, Barra certainly will stand up to the klieg lights.
And down the road, if she succeeds, will it be because she's a woman? Doubtful. Virgina Rometty has been leading a transformation of
To be sure, there was a time when most automakers did poorly in reckoning with the fact that women actually dictate most car purchases in the United States and other markets; and many chauvinistic auto dealers didn't treat them very well in the showroom or the service department. But in a market as competitive as today's, that all amounts essentially to ancient history.
(About the only difference Barra might make in that regard could be to dictate that GM vehicles finally provide a convenient and effective place for women drivers and passengers to stash their purses without those accessories sloshing all over the cockpit!)
GM's brands, products and marketing, like their competitors', are plenty aimed at female sensibilities and desires these days. And Barra's widely acknowledged collaborative approach to management already has been given a wider berth at GM.
No, if Mary Barra takes GM to the next level -- which actually would be a level it's never before attained, in many ways -- it will be because she's a great visionary and leader who just happens to have a female touch.
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