Roger Smith. I blame him for the downhill slide that led to GM’s bankruptcy. The killing of the Oldsmobile line and the creation of Saturn. The costs alone to close down Oldsmobile and the Saturn startup were astronomical, money would have been better spent to reconfigure Oldsmobile.
Close second is Mary Barra. Her legacy is the amount of product that now comes from Asia. Buick was “saved” (term used loosely) because Buick was considered more of a prestigious brand than Cadillac in China, a market that GM sorely wanted to enter.
Today, Buick has been taken over by products from China and South Korea with the Tri-shield added. Only one Buick today is built in North America, the Enclave.
-------------------------------------—————— ————————--Ignorance is a powerful tool if applied at the right time, even, usually, surpassing knowledge(E.J.Potter, A.K.A. The Michigan Madman)
Posts: 8673 | Location: Livingston County Michigan USA | Registered: August 11, 2002
Rick Scott when he was CEO of HCA. Somehow he wiggled out of that mess and is seen as respectable in Florida.
Scott was pressured to resign as chief executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997. During his tenure as chief executive, the company defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs. The U.S. Department of Justice won 14 felony convictions against the company, which was fined $1.7 billion in what was at the time the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history.[8][9] Following his departure from Columbia/HCA, Scott became a venture capitalist and pursued other business interests.
Dick Fuld- Lehman Brothers Ken Lay- Enron Stockton Rush- Oceangate
"I’m not going to read Time Magazine, I’m not going to read Newsweek, I’m not going to read any of these magazines; I mean, because they have too much to lose by printing the truth"- Bob Dylan, 1965
Posts: 18013 | Location: Texas | Registered: May 13, 2003
I'm going with Asshat referring to personal qualities and not business or professional success. Guys (and girls) who have fought their way to the top are often not very nice people personally. In this regard, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs and DJT come to mind.
Posts: 1025 | Location: Nashville | Registered: October 01, 2009
_________________________________________________________________________ “A man’s treatment of a dog is no indication of the man’s nature, but his treatment of a cat is. It is the crucial test. None but the humane treat a cat well.” -- Mark Twain, 1902
Posts: 9601 | Location: Northern Virginia | Registered: November 04, 2005
American business is based on an approximate capitalist system. A free market principle is that it is good and just when individuals act in their own self-interests apart from defrauding anyone.
If you defrauded people, then, by definition, you're an asshat. But if in playing the game according to the rules, you stepped on people's toes, that's just being good at the game. Hate the game, don't hate the playa.
"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
Posts: 20608 | Location: The Free State of Arizona - Ditat Deus | Registered: March 24, 2011
