Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 09:59:15 +0100 From: "Richard Kirby" <rskirbynospamali.co.uk> Subject: As read in the NY Times....
A former Saab executive who was at the company when General Motors first took over has suggested that Saab's failure to retain its identity is not so much the fault of G.M. as of the Wallenberg family. The former majority owners of Saab, the Wallenbergs agreed to sell G.M a half interest with the clear understanding that they and their minions would be abdicating any meaningful further role in Saab's future. "When they sold it, they should have insisted on input, using their executives and remaining true to the company's ideals," this executive said. "But they rolled over and said, 'You run it.' G.M.'s got its problems, but it's the Swedes' fault. They gave away their heritage. General Motors is just doing what they know how to do, the way they know how to do it." The former Saab executive added that a "powerful industry watcher" told him at the time: " 'You know what a Ghia badge looks like on the side of a Ford? That's what's going to happen to Saab.' I've carried that thought for almost the last 15 years and I'm sorry to have to say, at the end of the day, he was right." Worrying times....
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