Back to Biz with Katie and Boz: GM CEO Mary Barra

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Sign up on the web for free or download in the up stores. Ato dot ai. That's O T T E R dot ai. Hi everyone, I'm Katie Couric and I'm Bosma st. John and this is back to Biz with Katie and Bows. This week, Bos, we have a really exciting and very inspiring guests. She's such a trailblazer, such an inspiration in the business world. I know you haven't met her, but you know all about her. So take it away, Bows, tell us about our guests, Mary Barra, Katie, I am excited about Mary Bara. She is all of my corporate goals. She is the CEO of General Motors, one of the big three Detroit automakers. GM is one of the largest and historically importing companies to the American economy. And I mean talk about male dominated. You can't get more of a swaggering boys club than the car industry, that's for sure. And when Mary was appointed Bows and two thousand fourteen, only twenty of the Fortune five hundred chief Execs were women, and now we're up to thirty seven, which we should note is still impossibly infuriating lee small, but as more women take over those executive positions, we really have to thank leaders like Mary Barra. Absolutely, she's incredible and it was such a pleasure to meet her over Zoom and have this meaty, wonderful conversation. You know, she shared her path to leadership and how she was able to make such a massive company like GM act nimbly in a time of crisis. But of course we had to start in the here and now we had to talk about this letter she wrote to a nearly two hundred thousand employees in response to our current racial unrest. I have to tell you, Katie, I was. I mean, I'm really really impressed, you know, the company let her expressed some fiery sentiments that I really haven't heard seen presented by many CEOs at all, and a lot of people. Hopefully Bo's will follow suit. And I've got a quote from that letter. She says she is impatient and disgusted by the fact that as a nation we seem to be placated by the passive discussion of why we wanted to know where her head was that when she wrote that letter, and how she plans on turning those words into action. So we started there. Ye, let's get into it. Well, I think, uh, you know, there was this sense of sadness and frustration that I had as I you know, learned what was happening and processed it, and at a human level, it was just unconscionable of what happened. And I'm an engineer by degree, and so I'm a problem solver, you know, I think we It just became very clear to me there's been too many others that we can't just you know, talk about why and then you know, something else replaces the news cycle and nothing gets done. Became really important to me that we do something and we find solutions and we drive her last team change And I'm really you know, I'm just passionate about really making changes and stop talking. Let's start doing that. Is that's that's so true and refreshing to hear. I know that your letter also announced the formation of an advisory board, UM, as you said, which has the intention of making GM a more inclusive company in the world. Um, what do you think that the company and perhaps like yourself and the others who are leading the company, UM, how do you actually get there? Like, how do you make it a more inclusive company? Because that's really the operative word here. You know, Diversity is one thing, certainly, you know, we can have people of all types of backgrounds and cultures, ethnicities, etcetera. But inclusion is what actually makes it workable. It's what actually creates the success. So what what is it that you intend to do by creating this advisory board. Well, Jeam, we've been talking about for a while now that we want to have a culture and an environment where everybody can bring your true self to work because if you can be your true self, you can be at your best. And so that's been our goal. Uh. We recognize we have more work to do, and so with the Inclusion Advisory Board, one of the very first things we know we need to do is listen because we don't have all the answers. Uh. And so actually I'm excited because this evening we have one of our first listening sessions with several members of the Senior Leader team, and we believe we need to listen, we need to talk, we need to learn together. Uh. You know, as I said in in the note, um, you know, listening and talking will lead to the dialogue that will lead to change. And so uh, that's one of the areas we need to work on. I'm also personally very uh pleased that I get to be a part of the b RT group that is going to work on four areas of the area of from a finance perspective, a healthcare perspective, education, and Workforce, which is the committee I chair, and then Criminal Justice because I do think we need systemic change. And you know, when you a company like General Motors, uh, you know, we feel a responsibility to drive change within our environment and what we can do with our dealers and our suppliers. So we have a pretty wide footprint. But then in addition to working with the Business Roundtable and all of those companies, I think, you know, together we can really, we can really start to dismantle um and and change systems for the better. So again, we have much work to do to build on things that we've already done, but we have much more work to do, and we're gonna be working both as a company and then as a collection of companies. It seems to me that we've reached this new era where it's not really okay to stay silent on some of these shoes. We've seen people like you Mary speaking out. Jeff Bezos basically told a customer from Amazon that if he didn't like it, you know, he could lump it, and he didn't mind losing him as a customer, which is a real shift for Jeff Bezos. And we see, you know, people like Ken Fraser, the CEO of Mark saying George Floyd could have been him. And you know, I think that that we're hearing from these corporate leaders in a much more palpable way right now. Why is that so essential? And and what do you make of this real shift in and speaking out? Okay, you know again, when I when I look at General Motors, we've always said we want to be known as a values based company, and so as we have spoken out in the past, it's always been to make sure our employees understood what we believed in, what we stood for as it relates to our values. And I think it is to a tipping point now where it would be inconsistent with our values not to speak out and not to uh work with others and challenge ourselves and challenge others. When I when I said in the note we want to be the most inclusive company in the world, I don't want to. I mean I want every company to be the most inclusive in the world, because it's not something we should compete on. It's something we all have to dedicate ourselves to do. So to me, it's values based and you can't stay silent when something is just fundamentally happening that is so inconsistent with your values. You you have a responsibility to act. That's um. That is quite a radical statement. It really is to say that it's not just about General Motors being the most inclusive company in the world, that you want every company. I feel I have to pause there because I don't know that I've ever heard that before. I'm curious, Bows, do you think that's starting to happen? Obviously Mary is a real leader in this. Do you think that more and more people will follow Mary Bara's lead. I hope that more people follow Mary's lead, But I do think that this is a change. I again, I have never felt the kind of movement and the kind of personal responsibility that leaders are taking in this very moment. I've never seen this before. Yes, this type of thing has happened a lot. This is not the first video we've seen. It actually makes me quite enraged when we think about the countless people who don't have video. But I do believe that there are several things that are adding to this moment. I mean, obviously we cannot ignore COVID nineteen and so when you see something like George Floyd's video of his murder I think it is shocking. It is shocking, and it makes us all wake up. And so I do believe that this is a turning point for all of us. UM. And I've also said that I wish more companies would make more statements like Mary is making. But I I do wonder about the some of the mixed reactions you know that the company's getting. Perhaps there are some fear from business leaders to make the kind of bold statements that Mary and others are making. Um, you know, because there's there's gonna be mixed reaction. Sometimes people won't believe you right right. I was going to ask you Mary about sort of you know, we live in such a cynical age and I'm wondering if, if if you're worried on behalf of other leaders like yourself, that that some will view this as sort of flagrant brand opportunism. You know, that they are jumping on the bandwagon that they um that that they're not really that sincere in their commitment, And I'm curious how you feel about that. Well, I would say I've I've had the opportunity over the last couple of weeks to talk to a lot of CEOs and uh, it's real there. I mean, you know, it's a it's a deep concern and from that comes a strong commitment. And so you know, from every all the CEOs that I've talked to, I believe it's it's real and it's sincere, and they're being very authentic. And I would also say, you know, with the response that I've received from the letter we shared at General Motors, not only did we have hundreds in one day, we had almost six responses from our employees on our internal site, but I've had dealers reach out to me, suppliers reach out to me saying thank you. You know, we believe in this too, and you know we want to work with you. And so, uh, you know, we expected there would be some you know, pushback or some negativity and other than some skepticism, which I think is are you know, some of our employees kind of said, hey, yeah, I hear you, I read what you said. I want to see what you're going to do. And I think that's a very fair response. And that's why you know, we're taking steps with the fund we've set up, in the initial donation we've made to the Double A c P and the fact that we're already starting our listening to us, and it happens to be my first listening session. There have been other leaders that have already been having uh discussions uh to to to learn and to also provide a resource to to their employees because this is such a difficult time. Uh. I was talking to one of our leaders today and she said, you know, people are exhausted. Um. This issue has been so troubling and so so difficult. I'm wondering, Mary, how much you've learned about how to tackle this challenge through your work on gender equality. GM has been consistently recognized as one of the world's eating corporations and establishing gender equality. Um. First of all, how do you get other people to follow suit? And what lessons have you learned from those efforts that could be applied to creating a more diverse and an inclusive workplace and company. Well, I would say one of the big lessons I learned because, as I mentioned, you know, there was work going on over twenty years ago that allowed me to have the chances and the opportunities that uh, you know, allowed me to be ready and considered for the position I'm in now. You know, as the company in the late oh eight oh nine time from as we went through the bankruptcy, I realized as we survived, we had to start again. So I think what a mindset people have to have is this is never done. This is something of you know, or I guess I look for the day when it doesn't need special focus. But I think we're a long way off from having leaders very deliberate about uh, creating diverse groups, diverse opportunities. Uh. And and you know, it really gets to I would say, I'm an engineer, and so what I've had a challenge myself to do is I think I would sometimes pick people like me because I was like, Okay, well I know I'll get it done. So if I pick someone like me, they'll get it done. And recognizing you get a really narrow slice when you do that. And so we've worked really hard to have our leadership team not only have you know, i'll say gender, race, from a diversity perspective, but also experiences other companies. And then because that, you know, very diverse thinking, I think has allowed us to make better decisions and challenge each other. And so I really think that we it's something you have to continually focus and make sure again, it's a business imperative just as much as you know, wanting our next set of electric vehicles. And that's the mindset that we have to have. And that's to the learnings I had, because I think at some point people said, Okay, well we've got that, We're doing well. It's it's a continual focus. You're listening to Back to Biz with Katie and Bows and when we come back, Mary Barra on GM's decision to stop making cars and start making ventilators. Whether your event needed one room or an entire conference center, hoppin has revolutionized the way people come together. With hoppin, you can host a fully fledged digital meet up, complete with one on one meetings, hands on sessions, and expo booths. And because everything is hosted in a single, easy to use platform, it can be as big or small as you want, remain convenient for anyone who wants to attend, and give you access to data you never would have known otherwise. Visit hoppin dot com to learn more and get started. Here's another podcast you should add to your listen list, All Worth Financials Money Matters. Every week, host Scott Hansen and Pat McClain answer calls about investing, social Security benefits and retirement with straight talk that's straight up entertaining. 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The moment you realized you were mistaking your kids for co workers okay, team, I'm what was the moment you knew it was time to get back to work. Let's drop it up at career Builder. Are simple customizable search tool lets you search for part time, full time, and even work from home jobs so you can find a job that fits your lifestyle. Get started now at career builder dot com. When Mary Barra became CEO of GM, she was not only the first female CEO in GM's history, she was also the first woman to lead any of the Big three Detroit automakers. Talk about a glass ceiling. Mary credits her role models for helping her realize that it was hers to smash. Yeah. I think, you know, for me, it starts. Um. I had a phenomenal mother who made me. You know, she just encouraged me from I think the day I was born that my brother and I we could do anything, we could be anythinging and if we worked hard, we could make it happen. And so she, uh, you know, I think having that, you know, through my life, I you know, I always had this belief in myself. Um, and so I think that carried me uh into uh, you know, many of the positions leading up to this and gave me that confidence. Because one of the things when I first was in this job, actually a daughter of one of our employees said to said to me, because you're in this role. I now see that I can do this and I hadn't again because of my mom. Just you know, it was just such an encouraging person I had a I had a really step back and think about that, and that caused me to realize I had an extra role to play of not of of championing um, young women because we've we've done a lot of work as Katie mentioned earlier, from a gender perspective, and helping women understand some of the situations they put themselves in. Uh. You know, I always used the example, Uh, if there's a posting for a new job, a woman will look at it and say, if there's ten requirements and she only has nine of them, she'll be like, oh bummer. Where a man will look at and say, I've got six and ten I'm gonna go for and what I women exactly and it's like, no, don't don't be mad at them. You go for it because even if you don't get the position, you're going to learn and so UM, I think when I got to the role, it was something I very quickly realized I could play an additional role of really encouraging girls and young women and being a champion but also working within the company for that, and then as we did more work from m for a bias. You know, one of everyone has biases. So being able to start talking about that and sharing what we've learned because I have found personally, as I realized some of the ways I was looking at things, we're just not right. UM, it really gave me the opportunity and we started having open dialogue and conversation about it. And so I think that's been one of the the things that I think has been powerful UH within our group. But I we also brought We do a lot of high performance teamwork. We work with an outside coach to UM to really help us know ourselves, understand our weak weaknesses, where we can be better, where our blind spots, and I think that work has been important and now lays the foundation for us to have the very important conversations and take the actions we need to take now and to hold ourselves accountable. So Mary Um, let's talk about business first though, how the pandemic affected your business, because while all this is going on, it's against the backdrop of a pandemic that has UH laid bare some serious social issues. But I'm just curious, did you realize early on what a serious problem this was going to be because you have facilities all over the world, including China. Yes, and before we transition and be happy to to talk about that, I would say that the issue we've been discussing I do see as a huge business issue for business to address and be part of the systemic change that we need to make, uh, to uphold our our responsibilities as as citizens and as corporate leaders. So, um, but that's a good that's actually a very good point. This is business. Um, it's not the bottom line. It's it's workplace culture. So thank you, which which drives the bottom line. And if you don't you know, people have choices. And if you don't have a culture of inclusion and you aren't valuing everyone over time, people people can can choose. So I I just wanted to say that. But as it relates to COVID clearly, Um. As as we were in the early part of the year, late January early February, we started to see the impact on China. Uh, you know, we we had to shut our facilities there and uh, you know, really work and make sure we were doing the right thing for our people and you know, reaching out working with our suppliers and dealers, etcetera. So at that point though it was still not clear if it would, you know, have the global reach that now clearly it has. Uh. As as we did see that happening, we were able to take all of the learnings from China and then from Korea and other operations around the globe, and that very much informed what we what we did in when North America UM was was impacted, and frankly then as as China came back, everyone was able to come back to work. All the lessons learned informed what we did. So one of the things that has been a silver lining from this tragic pandemic has been uh, you know, I think in the past sometimes we'd have a mindset of well, I'm different because I'm in this country, or I'm different, you know, it's different here. Because that SRC and this with this, everybody realized, you know, what they've you know, there's people who have experienced with this pandemic and how it impacts the workplace and and work and finances and on re aspect of the business. And so the desire to learn and the outreach across just general motors I thought was very very powerful and has has made us I think stronger. Uh. And so you know, it was something very significant because when you're an automobile company and you stopped making vehicles, it's pretty significant. And we're pretty capital intensive business, and so we had to take dramatic action quickly of and went through a zero based budgeting process to save money to make sure we were going to be secured with all the unknowns that you had in in March and April. Uh, and so you know, we focused on those steps the minute we had to shut our plants down. Though in the United States that there was a team already starting to work of what do we need to do to run and also because we did have some essential services, how do we make sure we provide a a safe environment? So uh, one of our our leaders kind of coined this phrase, but he said, first it's lives, then it's livelihood, and we're going to focus on lives and make sure we're creating a safe environment, and then we'll focus on livelihoods and that of the corporation. And that's what has guided us through it um and and continues to this day. Because I think we all sit not knowing will there'll be will there be another spike, How will that be handled? How long will it be till there's uh, you know, medical treatments or a vaccine, And so you know, we're we're doing a tremendous scenario planning of hoping for the best, but being prepared for a less optimal outcome. And that's how we're facing it. From a business perspective, I do find it very impressive that, Yes, for a business like yours, which requires manufacturing, which requires you know, um plants and all kinds of operations that must keep going, to have to pivot is a really big decision. I think after right after you shut down the North American operations UM, the team began working with Ventech right to manufacture ventilators. I mean that is that's a huge decision to make, uh and and to to put into action. How did that happen and how did you facilitate this type of quick turnaround. Well, I think it really speaks to the tremendous dedication of the General Motors team. I mean I got a call from ken Chanel. The next day, some of our leaders were talking to the leaders of Ventech. Then they were on a plane, and you know from that first meeting that we had with Ventech. A month later, we were producing ventilators. And to do that, we had to engage hundreds of our suppliers because we had to find suppliers who could start making the parts. Because Ventech at the time was it came between two and three hundred ventilators a month, and we wanted to scale that up to ten thousand a month. And so you know, with that challenge, Um, you know, everybody just came to the table because everybody realized and like I said, it is just the dedication and the strength of the GM team. People worked night and day because they knew they had an opportunity to save lives and and that's what motivated them. Our suppliers, many of our suppliers worked around the clock. Uh as I you know, went and spent time and in Indiana at the factory and Cokeomo Indiana that was making and still today is making ventilators. Everybody just did what they needed to do, and um, you know, for them it was incredibly empowering. But they knew every ventilator menta potential life saved, and that was the mindset, and you know, they just did they did what It took. Our our head of manufacturing for North America. He he said. As they started the project on the plane right out to Seattle's Um said, UM, you know, let's let's just assume one of our family members who's going to need event later. What would we do? That was the mindset, and so I can take very little credit. I can only be exceptionally proud. You're listening to Back to Biz with Katie and Bows and when we come back, how the pandemic altered the future of the GM car. Still living in and manually taking notes start the new year with auto dot ai to generate automatic notes for meetings, interviews, or lectures. With auto dot ai, you can search the meeting notes, insert images, play back the audio, and share them with your friends or coworkers. You can capture action items, remember meeting details, and keep everyone informed. Auto dot ai works for in person or virtual meetings like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. Sign up for free at auto dot ai or download the app for free auto dot ai. That's O T t E AI. That time you got home from a week of double shifts and your dog didn't recognize you. He hates me, hates me? Do you want to treat? You want to treat you knew it was time for something new, Let's drop it up At career Builder. You can find jobs with the work life balance and salary you want, Plus build a resume and apply to multiple jobs in just one click. Start your search at career builder dot com. This episode is brought to you by Wicks. Are you ready to take your business online? You need Wicks, the leading website creation platform that's got all the tools you need to create, manage, and grow your brand. 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After three months of closure to to COVID, nineteen, GM reopened its North American facilities on and for businesses around the country looking to do the same, the automaker may provide a peek at what's ahead. Our guest Mary bar tells us how that process has gone and what business in this new normal looks like. So far it has gone well, Uh, we have protocols in place, and we took the time to train our employees to answer all those questions, their questions because recognizing everybody is coming from a different place as it relates to COVID. Some people don't know a single person who has even had the disease, and other people have lost loved ones or have family members on the front line. And so the training and the and the work we did, and really one of the things we shared with everybody is is we need to, you know, show empathy because everybody's living this a little bit differently. And so as we welcomed everyone back, we put them through the training. We also explained the why why do you need to wear a mask? Why are we sanitizing, why are we screening? And all those processes are working for us right now. And you know, people, as I visited our facilities, people tell me I feel safer at work than I do at the grocery store. And so and we keep involving everyone into how can we make it even better? And the ideas are great, and so we just and once we have an idea coming from one facility, we spread it across the globe so everyone can get better. So so far, so good. We're not declaring victory, but it is working, UH, and we you know, when our people have confidence that they are working in a safe environment. I think the big unknown is will this crisis change consumer habits? Will it change the way people live? Will it change what they want? I'm just wondering if this pandemic has shifted how you're looking at the future and how you're predicting what your consumers are going to actually want. We we've seen this as UH and are trying to accelerate our move to electric vehicles because we think that is a big part of the solution. Even though it will happen over a period of time, the sooner we provide affordable, desirable uh, electric vehicles, we think we can start that transformation. So that's one of the things we've tried to accelerate as we go through this process. Um, you know, I think there's also an interest with customers wanting to have their own vehicle, not you know, being sure of public transport station. And then we've also been listening to customers and doing customer clinics to has what has changed and what are they looking for in their vehicle. And it's early days in that I think it will drive some change. I think people will still want to have vehicles. I think autonomous offers solutions even in in rides sharing because it's one less dimension of another person being in the vehicle. So we see you know, the transformation that we see happening in mobility with especially electrifide vehicles and autonomous vehicles. We see that, Um, we haven't changed our commitment and our intensity and moving in that direction. We think it's actually an opportunity to accelerate. Perhaps in closing are their thoughts that you have about the your hope for the future and for recovery at this time that we could take away even as we think about our own individual businesses or our own individual jobs and how we oper eight and what that timeline perhaps looks like. Well, I would say I'd offer two kind of different perspectives. One within general motors, we've learned how to do things with much less bureaucracy, to do things faster, to empower people, uh, and they're going to do great things and make great decisions. And you know, the rare time something doesn't work out is not a reason for when ninety percent of the time it's going to So I think that's something I'm very excited about. You know, as I look to the country and the and the globe, I hope, especially in the United States, as things are opening up, I hope people stay with understanding the virus is still with us, and follow the safety protocols and wear masks and practice social distancing. Because if we can come through this without another uh uh, you know, Spike, I think it's gonna be so important for the economy and for everyone's life from a livelihood perspective. So that's my hope that we all are responsible as we go through these next several months to get to the other side. It must be hard to run a big company like GM with so many uncertainties looming in the future. So um, I don't envy you, but I do admire you. Mary, I have a great team. I have a great team. Well, You're always quick to give them credit, which I think is part of the reason behind your success. Mary, Bara, thank you so much for spending time with us today. Thank you for the opportunity. I have to say I've learned a lot and I've really enjoyed the conversation, So thank you both. Thank you hashtag goals and that does it for this episode of Back to Biz with Katie and Bows. If you're not already, you can subscribe to the podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows, and please do everyone, and you can find more about all the cool people were talking to, as well as our favorite moments from these episodes on our Instagram feeds and stories. We're all about the Graham Until next time, everyone, I'm Katie Couric and I'm bozemas St. John and this is Back to Biz with Katie and Bos. Thank you everyone for listening, and we'll talk to you next time. Back to Biz with Katie and Bows is a production of I Heart Radio and Katie Currik Media. The executive producers are Katie Currik, Bozma St John, and Courtney Litz. The supervising producer is Lauren Hansen. The associate producers are Derek Clements, Eliza Costas and Emily Pinto. Editing by Derrek Clements and Lauren Hansen, Mixing by Derrek Clements. Special thanks to Adriana Fasio. For more information about today's episode, go to Katie Kirk dot com. You can also follow Katie Kurik and Bozma St John on Twitter and Instagram. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. BA