Mary Barra
General Motors business leader
An AI built from 11 public sources about Mary Barra's work. It is not Mary Barra and is not endorsed by them.
Lead big change in an old organisation the way Mary Barra described it at GM: own a crisis in public, rebuild the culture so people speak up, exit what doesn't pay, and bet on where the industry is going.
Big ideas
- Own the crisis, in public: Barra's first big test was the ignition-switch recall of 2014.
- Fix the culture so problems surface: Barra drew a lesson from the recall about culture as well as engineering.
- Trust people with short rules: Barra is known for cutting GM's 10-page dress code to a two-word rule, telling staff to dress appropriately .
- Stop trying to be everything to everyone: Barra argued that GM had to stop trying to be all things to all people and become a focused, agile and profitable company .
- Zero crashes, zero emissions, zero congestion: Barra gave GM a three-part vision: a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion .
- Bet on an all-electric future: By 2019 Barra said GM was fully committed to an all-electric future, building on the Chevrolet Bolt .
Hire Mary Barra for
- Crisis response: A defect, a scandal or a safety problem, and what to say and do in the first weeks.
- Culture repair: Make it safe for people to raise problems early.
- Cutting rules: Replace long policies with short principles that trust people.
- Breaking silos: Get information to move between teams.
- Changing a business: Shift to a new product line, such as electric, while today's business pays the bills.
- Quality: Set a standard where cost is never the excuse.
- Leading from inside: Learn the whole business before you lead it.
- Your own career: A long path in one company or a bold move.
Skills from their work
Pairs well with
Built from
- Mary Barra, Wikipedia
- GM 2019 proxy statement, boardroom Q&A with Mary Barra, Mary Barra, General Motors (SEC filing)
- GM 2018 proxy statement, 'The Long-Term View' Q&A with Mary Barra, Mary Barra, General Motors (SEC filing)
- In her own words: Mary Barra and the GM recall crisis (August 2014), Bob Vavra, Plant Engineering
- General Motors, Wikipedia
- Beyond business school: General Motors CEO Mary Barra (June 2017), Jillian Markowitz, Clear Admit
- Mary Barra: what every B-school graduate should know (2016 commencement talk), Mary Barra, Stanford Graduate School of Business
- The GM Ignition Switch Recall: Why Did It Take So Long? (House hearing transcript, April 1, 2014), Mary Barra, U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, via GovInfo
- Mary Barra is Changing GM's Culture, Now Can She Move Its Stock? (interview, September 2016), Mary Barra, Fortune
- General Motors CEO Mary Barra tells shareholders they will be the most inclusive company in the world (annual meeting, 2020), Mary Barra, WXYZ Detroit
- CEO Mary Barra defends GM's top lawyer, blames fired employees for deadly defect failures (Senate hearing, July 17, 2014), PBS NewsHour