On a talk show yesterday, a caller had an interesting idea for saving General Motors: put Mitt Romney in charge.

This tied together several thoughts on how to save the strapped automaker, and gelled into a plan:

Step One: file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

This will freeze in place many of the factors currently pressing GM towards collapse. It will also give a judge the authority to make sweeping changes within the company that it cannot do by itself.

Step Two: Fire current management and appoint Romney CEO.

This will satisfy many of the public’s thirst for blood. It will also send the message that nothing is sacred, nothing is off the table. Whatever needs to be done to save the company — in some form — will be done.

The terms of Romney’s two-year contract will be simple: he will be paid the base rate of a union line worker, plus expenses and a bonus plan based on GM’s return to profitability — preferably stock options, where his own compensation will be directly linked to his success.

In return, Romney will be granted near-absolute power over the company, putting together a new management team and restructuring it — from the ground up, if necesssary — to make it a viable, ongoing business.

Why Mitt Romney? Several reasons.

First, he’s not really doing very much right now. He’s technically unemployed, and his calendar’s pretty much wide open.

Second, he knows the auto business pretty well. His father was the CEO of AMC during the closest thing it ever had to a heyday, and he grew up knowing the industry.

Third, he has a proven track record of taking on failing companies and turning them around.

Fourth, if he succeeds, it will make him a national hero (except to unions, I’m sure, and they already despise him). It’s no secret that he’s considering another run for the presidency, and this could be a tremendous boost for him.

And even if he doesn’t succeed, he’ll get credit for taking on a nigh-impossible task — especially if he doesn’t demand or accept standard CEO-grade pay. And it’s entirely plausible that he wouldn’t — during his four years as governor of Massachusetts, he took only a dollar a year as salary.

Obviously, this plan is woefully short on details. But that is often the essence of good management –  put the right people in a position to do things, then stand back and let them do what you hired them to do.

Is this a grand plan, guaranteed to bring success and restore GM to profitability? Hardly. But it seems a bit more concrete than any others being kicked around.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 7:54 AM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.