GM: Closing 7 factories and laying off 15,000 workers

[袁春凤 (Tiffany)]

"Downsizing Wave" Frequently Occurs in Winter for Big Car Enterprises

GM: Closing 7 factories and laying off 15,000 workers

In the cold wave of the car market, GM adopted a strategy similar to Ford's, namely, closing factories and laying off employees.

On November 26, General Motors said it would cut production of unsalable models and lay off North American employees as the car market shrank. According to foreign media reports, GM will lay off 15% of its employees by the end of next year, involving nearly 15,000 people, including 25% of its executives. At the same time, GM will close seven production bases around the world, involving three plants in Osawa, Ontario, Canada, Detroit, Ohio, and Warren.

GM's plans to cut jobs and close factories have provoked outrage from President Trump and even threatened to cancel GM's subsidies for electric vehicles. However, in the biggest restructuring in the last decade, GM CEO Mary Bola has shown considerable reform determination.

In fact, as the first female CEO in GM's history, Mary Bola has been trying to build a "fortress" financial structure for GM. From selling Opel out of the European market, to exiting South Africa, East Africa, India and South Korea market one after another, to investing in emerging areas such as self-driving and mobile travel, GM, led by Bora, has contracted its global business scope and rapidly moved towards emerging industries and forward-looking markets.

Today, GM's financial performance in North America and China continues to be good, especially in the Chinese market, GM's investment returns continue to hit record highs.

Even so, GM, which is increasingly sensitive to the market and has a sense of crisis, has not been pursuing the expansion of its size in the global market, but has put streamlining its business and reducing its costs first.

Compared with Ford being forced to lay off employees and shut down its car business because of its financial crisis, GM's approach is more like an initiative before the crisis.

With the coming storm, it may be beneficial to prepare for self-protection in response to the cruel market.