Was GM CEO Mary Barra Set Up As A Sacrificial Lamb, Or Is This Just Poor Timing?

For two days this week, General Motors GM +1.16% Chief Executive Mary Barra withstood a barrage of Congressional questioning over GM’s recall crisis. Maintaining a steady tone, and rarely showing emotion, Barra apologized, repeatedly insisted that there is a “new GM” and promised a full investigation.

But as she sat for hours at House and Senate witness tables, a question circulated on comment boards and in conversations: was Barra being thrown under the bus by GM?

It’s easy to see why people are asking that. Barra, the first woman to serve as the CEO of Detroit company, was named chief executive effective January 15, meaning she has less than three months on the job. While she was among several candidates for the top position, her appointment came as somewhat of a surprise, both for its timing and for her gender.
 

knowitall1985 - 4/2/2014 4:00:18 PM

+1 Boost

Perfect timing if your GM, she just say's I wasn't here, but I'm going to get thing fixed now.

TauronB2G - 4/2/2014 7:08:17 PM

+4 Boost

I think she was set up and she drank the Kool Aid. She's gonna take all the heat. I feel sorry for her.
T

MattDarringer - 4/2/2014 9:13:55 PM

+4 Boost

I wonder if Obama is still taking credit for saving GM.

mre30 - 4/2/2014 11:08:20 PM

+4 Boost

She was definitely hired so she would be the public face of this crisis. As a GM 'lifer' she likely knew it too.

The worst thing about this whole crisis is, likely, that the engineering group (and the accounting group who approved it) who designed the cheapo ignition switch, probably are all still employed by GM. Has anybody asked her if she fired everyone who was associated with this debacle?

Heck, their controls and accountability are probably so poor that they don't even know who did it.

Its just sickening on a whole bunch of levels. They just don't give a S--t. They were "Government Motors" long before they took the government's money. They are like a "US Post Office" that happens to make cars. Sickening.

DougS - 4/3/2014 9:09:12 AM

+3 Boost

I see from of the comments that Barra was hired specifically for this non-recall. Its would be hard for me to believe Barra didn't hear anything in the decade plus on problems with the ignition switch. How can a top Engineer running a top dept not know? I worked for the biggest steel firm in the US for 36 yrs and continue to get feedback on problems. Are you telling me she didn't have buds on the in of this debacle? Lets get her emails and correspondences over the past 14 years place her under oath and ask her again. She is like SGT Shultz, I don't know anything!

Holydude - 4/5/2014 10:32:56 AM

+1 Boost

Use your brains guys, you have it for a reason. Anyone in similar situations will absolutely deny knowledge or involvement unless someone catches me red-handed, wouldn't you? She is shrewd and not as simple as you've all described or implied, and by shaking your head in disbelief that she did not admit knowledge and thereby implicating herself, you are in danger of seeming like the bigger fool.