This morning – October 1, 2009, a reminder popped up on my calendar. Today was the day my brother Rick retired officially from General Motors after 30 years. He started in the Newark, Delaware plant at the age of 18, the day after his birthday. Over the past three decades, he saw many changes, slow downs, strikes, and lay offs; but, he also saw innovations in manufacturing and new automotive technologies evolve.
He started at GM in a time when working as a GM employee was a safe bet for the future and retires in a time when many have to wonder what comes next. But, through it all, he was a hard working and dedicated employee, who delivered value, and through his working years at GM, bought a home, raised a family, and now in his ‘retirement’ years plans to focus his energies on building another business – his own.
I’m proud of him. He’s a great example of what it means to grow up in a GM Family. And I know that his own business will prosper because he brings to it a dedication to customer service and quality that will make his customers keep coming back and even more important – tell their friends about him.
Also today, I saw an article pop up from AdAge with another footnote to the GM Story. This one too was another goodbye – After Talks to Sell Fall Through, GM Says Goodbye to Saturn. The story chronicles Saturn’s story through it’s ads. It’s dedication to innovation and service, the commitment it had to its customers and in many ways the feeling of engagement it’s employees, dealers and customers had in turn with Saturn. Now with the Penske deal falling through, soon Saturn will be no more.
Saturn was once the shining star of General Motors, yet through years of corporate in-fighting and internal politics between the GM car divisions and the resulting challenges created for Sayurn, the fledgling brand could not grow to fulfill its promise. Now Saturn is becoming ‘GM’s orphaned child’ – with no opportunity for a new homecoming on the horizon.
Saturn employees and dealers put together a valiant fight to save something they believed in – a quality product, a new way of doing business, and commitment to giving the customer what they want through partnerships as shown in this – one of the last Saturn commercials. Unfortunately, it looks like this time, they could not win the battle.
In kind of an odd twist –
the last car my brother ever built at the GM Newark Delaware plant,
was a Saturn SKY.
Thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned…
Joan Koerber-Walker