General Motors (GM) yesterday (20 November) announced a series of leadership changes in its senior leadership team to become a more customer-centric organization and enhance its relationship with its suppliers.
Alicia Boler-Davis, currently senior vice president, Global Quality and Customer Experience, is named senior vice president, Global Connected Customer Experience. In addition to her current customer experience responsibilities, she will assume responsibility for the Global Connected Consumer organization, which includes OnStar and its call centers. Boler-Davis will continue to report to Barra.
Grace Lieblein, currently vice president, Global Purchasing and Supply Chain, is named vice president, Global Quality and will report to Barra. Under Lieblein’s leadership, GM has set the foundation for more productive supplier relations, based on greater collaboration, dedication to quality fundamentals and a focus on mutual success, which has been recognized by the supplier community as a model for the industry.
Steve Kiefer, currently vice president, Global Powertrain, is named vice president, Global Purchasing and Supply Chain. Kiefer will report to Mark Reuss, executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. He will continue to build on the progress Lieblein established with suppliers.
Dan Nicholson, currently executive director of Powertrain Embedded Controls, is promoted to Global Powertrain vice president, assuming Kiefer’s responsibility and reporting to Mark Reuss. Nicholson’s broad-range global experience in quality, powertrain development, engine calibration, and controller and software integration are especially valuable as embedded controls and software increasingly are being applied to sophisticated engine and drivetrain systems. A replacement for Nicholson’s current role will be named later.
Mary Chan, vice president, Global Connected Consumer, has elected to leave GM to pursue other opportunities, but will remain with the company through the first quarter of 2015 to assist with the transition and the 4G LTE production launch in China and Europe.
Significance: The leadership changes are in line with GM's strategy to enhance its partnership with suppliers to deliver greater value to customers. Moreover, GM thinks the move to align all customer-facing centers under single leadership will enable more consistent customer care and deliver improved efficiency. Commenting on the changes, GM's CEO Mary Barra said, “We understand that we have to earn our customers’ trust and loyalty, and that every interaction matters. The vehicle purchase is just the start. We intend to earn customers for life by delivering exceptional quality and customer care, and these changes put us on a path to achieving that.”
