G.M. Board Tells Fritz Goodbye

The "Tell Fritz" webpage — an empty PR gesture that G.M. trotted out after bankruptcy to show that CEO Fritz Henderson was in touch with consumers — was good for something. Bill Vlasic of The New York Times used it in the lead of today's story on Henderson getting canned:

As part of his bid to make General Motors management appear more accessible and responsive coming out of bankruptcy, the chief executive, Fritz Henderson, set up a Web page called Tell Fritz.

One consumer sent in a question last month asking why G.M. had fared so poorly in a recent Consumer Reports survey.

“We were generally disappointed in our results,” Mr. Henderson responded. “We simply must produce better results.”

On Tuesday, the new G.M. board agreed emphatically with Mr. Henderson’s assessment, and asked him to resign immediately.

Is it just me, or does Fritz Henderson look a little like Charles Foster Kane?

Tell Fritz!

Reading The New York Times story on G.M.'s emergence from bankruptcy, two seemingly minor paragraphs jumped out at me:

1. "[CEO Fritz] Henderson announced several new ways that G.M. planned to reach out to customers through the Internet. A Web site called 'Tell Fritz' will let consumers offer suggestions directly to Mr. Henderson, and the company will experiment with selling vehicles through the online auction site, eBay."

Thanks for the empty P.R. gesture, G.M. Do you think potential customers really believe Fritz will take regular breaks from saving a corporation on the brink of extinction to peruse random email suggestions? This reveals a lot about how G.M. regards the public. At best, the company is out of touch with its customer base. At worse, the G.M. executives think we're all a bunch of idiots.

2. "Robert A. Lutz, a G.M. vice chairman who planned to retire at the end of the year, will stay to oversee marketing and communications. Mr. Lutz, 77, is responsible for the improvements that G.M. has made in vehicle design recently, with notable examples such as the Chevrolet Malibu and the newly revived Chevrolet Camaro."

Do you really want a 77-year old, regardless of his management skills, in charge of marketing a company that is notoriously alienated from the younger demographic?

UPDATE: Anyone remember Chrysler's ill-fated "Ask Dr. Z"?