Ten years from now, will former Ed Whitacre have a resume that includes the reconstruction of the power and prestige an American icon, and also briefly ran a doomed car company in Detroit? Or will he be two for two? Readers of Telecom Ramblings know him as well as any group, so what do you think:
Loading ...As a fan of competitive telecom I wish Whitacre hadn’t done many of the things he did at SBC and AT&T, even if it did make sense for the company. However he certainly did leave his mark.
I don’t envy the job ahead of him one bit. It’s one thing to take over a functioning company with local monopoly power and a low profile and leverage it into something greater. It’s quite another to take over a completely dysfunctional car company like GM that is under intense scrutiny from all directions – political, legal, economic, and competitive – and bring it back from oblivion. There are no guaranteed incumbent revenues here, there is no obvious direction to go. This is a much, much harder job.
I never thought I would say it, but… Good luck, Ed.
It’s hard to say. I think you need a fifth choice here: Maybe, but only time will tell.