As predicted/advised in Sept 2008, GM enters Chapter 11 today. The vituperation after making the forecast was a bit painful, but to me, the future is just not something that can or should be compromised.

The beginning of the end of the Hummer-UAW-Viagra configuration of the Detroit auto manufacturing era is complete. (GM was the world’s largest single buyer of Viagra.) The moldering cadaver of corporate intransigence and vulgar UAW excess is finally being properly embalmed for funeration. This forecast was not especially perspicacious, but it is a stern warning for everyone: respect your people, nurture your networks and focus on value… or face the same consequences: oblivion.

BTW, to see our automobile future all you need to do is visit any parking lot in Palo Alto or Fresno and calculate the ratio of Detroit products to Asian and European models. Yo, UAW -- game over! End of discussion.

Meanwhile, clever Koreans and eager, independent workers are building the largest car plant on earth by far in northeastern Alabama, USA. They join the enormous Honda and Hyundai plants already there. Notably, KIA sales have been up over the last two quarters.

Chapter 7, wholesale liquidation of GM, would have been far more compassionate, sensible and preferred. The halfway measures and govt intervention are truly disappointing. (Don’t worry, they won’t last either.) My hope is the McKinsey’s and Accenture’s that were advising GM on OD, change management and finance for a generation accept a large measure of responsibility. They won’t, of course. These craven parasites just move along to the next gullible host. In this case, likely the Federal govt. Not only is GM bankrupt, so are these obsolete practices and practitioners. 

For any of you that still disrespect the individual in favor of self-righteous title, that advance overbearing processes and support ruinous organizations, those that believe in self-serving labor unions and continue to subscribe to contemporary MBA doublespeak, you need to please carefully review this site.  

http://www.kevinbauman.com/100abandonedhouses (From Bill Ives, Portals and KM)

See just 100 of over 12,000 abandoned homes in the ghost town of Detroit. Before your next corporate ‘change management’ retreat or OD intervention, please, revisit this site. The next time you hear a Michigan congressperson or Michael Moore sing their bogus, sanctimonious chorus of mendacity, revisit this site. Every time some vain manager puts position and title in front of people and networks, revisit this site. Every time some labor union steals from your paycheck, revisit this site.

While browsing the ‘100’, consider the generations of families displaced and ruined by phony title, rank, position, process, govt intervention and labor unions. This is not abstract. Yes, Virginia, narcissistic managers, greedy unions and shallow, short-sighted politicians have ruined an entire economic region forever. 

Recall in 2007, with over a million unsold cars in inventory, Mark LaNeve, GM’s head of North American sales and marketing, protested the need for change. “It’s not like we have some crisis,” he told the Wall Street Journal in its Feb. 9, 2007 edition.

Meanwhile, recognize among the early and most lasting business benefits and advantages of value networks use is authenticity. Productive VNA sessions and conversations are devoid of the pervasive doublespeak that infects so many organizations and makes them ridiculous, ineffective, moribund and, well, bankrupt.

The silver-lining in this whole mess is a Copernican Inversion of establishing value and outcome, not organizational structure, process, title or position, as the primary units of analysis and center of meaning vis-à-vis VNA. This is the purpose of value networks. It’s is why we founded ValueNetworks.com. Meritocracy and holoarchy, not title and authority, carry the day for value networks and the future of individuals, business, the environment and civil society.

Obviously, many in Detroit never had an authentic conversation concerning value creation and achieving positive outcomes. Unctuous practitioners and self-absorbed management sanctified ineffective network patterns with titles, specious legacy, rigid codification and phony legitimacy. (Trust me, I was there.)

Recall in 2006, GM's CEO Rick Wagoner responded to the call for "new blood" in GM's leadership with this proclamation in Newsweek: "These are sophisticated problems with historical tails that run back 80, 90 years. The chance of someone coming in and understanding our business…is absolutely microscopic."

Soaring corporate arrogance AND plain dopey remarks like this one got Wagoner, at $75,000.00 per hour, axed by the US president! Woo-Hoo!

This is also why Detroit summarily dismissed Lean and TPS two-decades ago. These methods, and value networks, honor and respect the individual, their inputs, the collective intelligence and in particular, the essential roles, relationships, exchanges and and whole networks that continuously sustain auspicious conditions for high performance, perpetual innovation and favorable outcomes.

VNA is an amplification of these potent methods. It equips leaders with comprehensive value-centric topology, visual pathways and high valence fluidity for adjacent, recursive and perpetual value creation necessary to compete globally. In productive, innovative manufacturing and business settings, dubious hierarchies and specious titled positions are simply the legacy accessories of prosperous value networks. 

Sometimes, the dazzling focus and authenticity of the value networks lens can be jarring. Even some value network practitioners and leaders can be unwound by the arc light of authentic value networks. Adaptation takes time. It is critical to suspend disbelief and not shoot the messenger. Stay with it – the payoff is enormous!

P.S. The next shoe to drop is the obese teacher and service unions that are bankrupting California, New York and other ‘blue’ states like, well, Michigan -- economically, spiritually and morally. The poisonous union-politician-legislation nexus is killing state governance and democracy.