Mary Barra, Chairman and CEO, General Motors Co.
Interviewer: Ellen McGirt, FORTUNE

MPW Summit 2020: Purpose and Leadership

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From pivoting to produce ventilators and masks, expanding diversity and inclusion initiatives, and keeping up with their vision for an electric future—we’ll hear how GM is staying the course through the current crises.

We're back to talk about strong and purposeful leadership, which is so essential right now with the pandemic racial injustice and social unrest, the need to pivot, reinvent on the fly, show compassion, it's possible an electric car, all of which seemed very urgent right now, joining me, my wonderful conversation partner mary, Barra, chairman and Ceo of General Motors mary. It's so good to see you again. How are you? Okay? Well, um and it's great to be here and I'm so excited uh that how you transformed uh this this uh summit. It seems like there's a lot of energy. Well that's really good to hear. We've been working very hard behind the scenes to get everyone together and learn about how we're managing the world. And I think a good place to start. The last time I spoke to you was for Leadership next podcast. It was just, it felt like days after the pandemic really took hold at least here in the US and not long after the death of George Floyd and all that came with that. I want to get to that in a second. But it seems like the smart place to start was just how is GM doing? How is your workforce? How are your plans? And now that the pandemic is chugging on, I'm a little worried that we're going to have to see ventilators from you again. How are things? Well, uh you know, actually the resiliency of the GM team once again, they continue to demonstrate all that they're capable of doing as we have worked through this since the early days in january, we started to see the pandemic in china. Our focus has been on safety because safety is our overriding priority. And so, you know, we've learned from across the globe and many places, people are back to work in the United States, we have all of our operations running our labs are test track our design centers, every everyone's back who needs to be at work to do work. And we're also then with those who can work from home, they're finding creative ways to continue to Uh engineer design and plan for manufacturing of our next generation vehicles, many of which are electric. So I couldn't be more proud of the team. We now, since we last talked, we have completed, we've made 30,000 ventilators and we turned the facility over to our partner ven Tech who is continuing to make ventilators that it was their backlogs. So we feel very good about that and we continue to make masks. I I can't tell you how long we'll be making that be making them as long as you know the country and frankly the globe needs them. I was surprised as we were chatting earlier how young your salaried workforce is, This has got to be particularly tough for them. Having young families are just being new in the workforce. What have you learned about taking care of them? Well, I think it is so important to understand, you know, I almost felt uh it was a bit of a silver lining because I have my college age or post college Children home, but when I hear stories of our young families that have a six and eight and a 10 year old, I can't imagine the homeschooling challenges while you're trying to get your work done or if you're, you know, you need to come to work arranging for childcare and someone you trust to do the home schooling. So we've been trying to provide a lot of support mechanisms uh and we're also really focusing and telling stories of how important it is to take a break from work to uh to make sure that you're getting that balance time and so it's really listing and then making sure we have leadership examples that demonstrate, we really want them to take care of themselves and their families, not only during the pandemic, but always. So that leads me to the all electric future that you've been promising and talking about. I'm curious where the status of that and and are you meeting all your goals and milestones and if the pandemic impacted even in a positive way, some new innovations around that? Well, if we if we started to understand the full impact of the pandemic. One of the things we very early on decided we were not going to slow down anything related to our electric vehicle future. And so I'm proud to report that now, over the last several months we've actually been able to accelerate it. Um, everyone of the electric vehicle programs, uh we kept on track and actually I found ways to to improve them. Uh you know, moments before the pandemic became just so impactful in the United States, we had an E. V day where we shared with everyone are calcium battery system and that we continue to develop that the engineers we have working around the globe that are working on improving the battery technology because the battery technology and the cost is key to making electric vehicles affordable. And we know the importance of electric vehicles uh as it relates to climate change, we have to make sure we can have easier for everyone and that's what we're working on. And I think general motors, when you look at our engineering capability, our manufacturing capability, and the fact that we now have two dedicated platforms using the alteon system to support, um, you know, I'll say crossovers and SUVs all the way to truck. I think we were very excited and I told we're very well positioned to just march forward with that journey and we'll have more to share in the coming months. So speaking of marching forward, you're marching into a marketplace where there's some already, some strong players and a lot of conversation. Tesla is, is chiefly in chief among them, but not the only one. How do you think about where you fit into the marketplace and, and how do you think about your competition? Well, you know, in the auto industry in general, both newer entrance and traditional. Um, I never underestimate any of our competitors. Uh, there's a lot of, you know, very capable people out there working in this space. But I think where General Motors can bring all of our assets and our expertise is the fact that we have the manufacturing capability and we also have deep technical, uh, capability. And so that's what has led us to realize we need to have a dedicated platform. We looked at also, um, the fact that we have a joint venture with LG ChEM because so much of the cross is associated with the battery chemistry. So we're vertically integrating a portion of that work that we think will give us speed and also give us a cost and then a price advantage. But then also stepping back, we're looking at the entire ecosystem because we want customers to buy an IV because they see it as a perfect solution from charging to range to a vehicle that fits their needs from a size and functionality. All of those aspects are so important and that it has to be affordable and so we, we believe we have the formula to provide that not just for luxury segment but across the board. And you'll see us uh, sharing more, more vehicles. We've already shared the cadillac lyric and the GMC Hummer, but there's more vehicles coming after that that are in alcohol at the heart of the market and will be attainable for for many, many people, you know, as you were talking, I was sort of, I was wondering if I would drive a Hummer if it was electric, it just seems like it's so off brand for me personally, I'm curious if you have learned anything about how people are using or choosing automobiles these days, I drive so infrequently now, I'm wondering if you've had some, some insights around that? Well, we do a tremendous amount of customer research and that's one of the reasons that we are moving forward on an accelerated basis as it relates to electric vehicles because we're starting to see customers say, you know what if, if you, if you have the right range, if I feel confident in the charging infrastructure, if you have a vehicle that you know it has the functionality, I'm not going to buy a sedan if, if my life really requires midsized suv and so understanding all of those, we think we see the adoption happening and then as we look overall, like our ownership, we're really not seeing it go down. Uh, you know, people in certain cases are getting into vehicles a little bit later, but you know, the overall acceptance rate and desirability of having your own transportation. I think covid is maybe accentuated that, um, I think shows that there's real opportunity and promise and opportunities for growth. Yeah, I think about me wanting to have a socially distance, environmentally responsible, rolling living room right about now. I can get out into the world a little bit more before we moved to the philosopher queen. Um, part of this interview, I, I wanted to talk a little bit about how some of the elements of GM are working together, specifically your design and perhaps your engineering and manufacturing, um, teens or, or divisions are working together. Is there, is there anything that's new or interesting that we can learn from how they're collaborating to bring the all electric future? Well, over the last five years, we've made a concentrated effort to train leaders and design thinking and to really be focused on the customer. So that has been the underpinning, but with now dedicated a dedicated Tv platform in the altay um, uh, battery system that we have, it really has opened up new design, uh, you know, elements where in the past you had certain constraints as you designed a vehicle. This is free and a lot of those. So, uh, you know, engineering, working with design, working with me and you fast train. We're really excited about some of the, you know, really exciting designs that we have coming forward again, the cadillac lyric, which we just revealed just a handful of weeks ago with one of our most um, popular and highly, um, like from a customer clinic perspective. So we're excited about some of the new design language that we can put into the marketplace, also distinct to our brands via cadillac Vietnam er, mbia. Well, I think we have. That is fascinating. I love to learn more about what some of the employees are prototyping and how you capture those insights. We have a couple of minutes together before we start bringing in any questions. But I wanted to switch gears to um, your work on racial injustice and systemic inequality. The last time we spoke, it was shortly after you had written a really strongly worded letter, um which he said that you were impatient and disgusted that after George Floyd's murder and that so many of these things were still happening, we were still experiencing them. At that time you had decided to form the inclusion advisory board and we're in the process of a deep listening to what's happening to your employees and I imagine expanded to your whole ecosystem, maybe suppliers and and Salesforce as well. Can you give us an update on that work, please? So very much the work continues and we're still in a I would say I'm listening vote, but we also are taking action. One of the things that we did is we created a position which we called our Chief diversity inclusion and Equity Officer, very happy to share. We have pointed, um, a woman who's been at General Motor Street for many years, a name tells them a greater and she is really looking and we're looking holistically across the whole system at General Motors, from our hiring practices to development, to training to, um, to our, our policies to what we do with our suppliers, our dealers. So we're taking a very broad look stepping back and identifying areas where we think we can improve. And we're also, we're trying to be very transparent with the workforce. Is that yes, we're going to continue to make progress. But this is a journey that we're beginning. So we want to have realistic expectations and we want to keep everyone engaged. Just about two weeks ago, we had the top 230 leaders in the company participate in a session and it was all about many of the leaders, including myself and our president sharing stories of what we're learning and and you know what, what we've had to understand about ourselves and what's been hard because I think part of this is being vulnerable and sharing that, you know, we don't have all the answers I heard the other day, somebody said we're all learning real time and um I was so encouraged by and you know, so we were on a Microsoft teams meeting and if you watch the chat function, the leaders have the second very conversation going on where they were sharing resources and articles and ideas and um the feedback I got after this session was so powerful and so I really feel our leadership team is committed and that's very important. But we're also working to gauge across all levels. And so one of the other things we did is we added behaviors are very important at general Motors because how we behave everyday forms the culture. We added an age behavior called the inclusive. And so if now it's tied to how we, um, the behaviors that really become a language of how we talk and make sure we, you know, like people say, hey, by the way, I'm gonna be bold now or being inclusive. I'm going to make this comment. So it really is almost gives people permission to highlight the areas and the behaviors were trying to reinforce. And so it also ties to our recognition system and ultimately it will, it will try to how we evaluate people and overall performance. So we have a long way to go. But I'm encouraged by the engagement and the commitment I'm seeing across the entire company globally. That is really inspiring. And I'm curious if it's changed the way you thought about ceo succession, not saying you need to go anywhere or I'm asking any questions around that the question is more, was more powerful because you, every senior leader wants to think that they're surrounded by a bench of potential ceos, regardless of what your plans are and what it takes to invest in the person that way. Have you, have you seen any inspiration or new ideas around what it would take to create an entire bench of potential ceos? Well, one of the things that we're working on is any time we have a senior. So my um with my team, we really feel like we own the talent management of the most senior group. So this group of 230 so, um, any time there's a promotion or a position change for someone we require that there's a diverse candidates late, but we also want it to be real. And so I tell people look, don't just don't, don't put names if they're not real, but if if you don't have a diverse slate, then tell me what you're gonna do some three years from now, the flight will be diverse and that's causing a lot of discussion. We've also dedicated time from a human resource management perspective to look across some of our, the way we do things to recognize where there's bias or to recognize, um, you know how we're approaching it and we've already made several changes in that process. So I I think again, talking about it, raising it, um, you know, broadly across the organization, there's already many initiatives to have better diverse slates and to develop people across the company. Perfect. I think you've got a question coming up in a second. Welcome. How? Hey guys, Okay, I've got one question from Cheryl Stokes um, and she says, I love the opportunity to electric vehicles offer. I was born in flint michigan and went to GM I do you see opportunities to revitalize communities like flint, the a new vehicle technologies and related manufacturing? Well, today's a home of our heavy duty truck plant and there's a powertrain and stamping plants there. So at General Motors we have a very um committed, an incredibly talented workforce in flint and uh, you know what, that's one of the opportunities we have across General Motors is we already have a great team of people that can build today's vehicles, but also can build E. V. S of tomorrow uh, and and take all that manufacturing expertise. So uh flint is one of our home communities and you know, we'll continue to look for ways to strengthen and revitalize because one of our core values is to work to improve all of the communities where we live and work. Beautiful question because GM has had such a storied history in the lives of african americans and helped create the black middle class. So I'm looking forward to learning more about how that all unfolded. You know, in a couple of minutes we have remaining. How did you have another question or you have one more quick one from mary from Angela than Shiotani. I hope I pronounced your name right, Angela. And it is with these listening tours. Have you seen any systemic barriers? And I think um probably the biggest thing to me and I guess I guess it's systemic is Um it was eye opening for me because I've been at General Motors 40 years and to be inclusive and having a sense of belonging is so important because I just fundamentally believe when you're engaged at work, you're going to do your best work and why wouldn't we want everyone to be engaged and be happy, um, and doing your best work? And so as I heard how certain people felt as some of our black executives and black team members felt, um, they didn't feel that sense of belonging and so lifting and understanding the wives and then going about changing those is something that we're very much focused on. So to me, the big aha was the environment. I thought we were farther on the road of creating. We have much more work to do perfect. We have a minute left and I have just enough time to ask you my stakeholder capitalism question. I know you were a really big part of the business roundtable statement. Um, we design, we reclaiming the purpose of the corporation. There's been some critique recently, um, how optimistic are you that we're going to be able to continue to do the work of transforming into a stakeholder led society? Well, I, I think it's a stockyard. I talked to other ceos, um, you know, I think our commitment remains the same. I can tell you mine does, and when I look at it, I think it's best for business, it's best for the company, because if you're not taking care of your employees, your dealers, your suppliers being respectful of the communities that you work in, you're not going to create a long term value that the shareholder is looking for. So, I view it as is necessary to create long term value for everyone, whether it's sustainability of great environment to work in uh, strong partnerships with for us, it's our dealers and our suppliers, our union. Uh, so I struggle when, when people, you know, I don't I don't know how to think that doing all those things, the right things for stakeholders is going to lead to a stronger uh and result in long term value for our shareholders. So that's my focus, and and sometimes I think people are trying to pull it apart more than it needs to be. I will take that note because I'm one of those people mary, thank you so much for being here and thank you for all the questions.