Skeptics say those are the kinds of problems that e-business will not solve. "The alleged benefits of the digital age fail to address the two real problems in the industry: overcapacity and real manufacturing bottlenecks," says Scott Hill, an analyst covering automotive stocks for Sanford C. Bernstein in New York City. E-business is not the only action GM has taken to revive its fortune. GM’s zero percent financing in 2001 and ongoing layoffs to reduce costs are two examples. The company also lured Bob Lutz (who helped Chrysler create buzz cars such as the Viper and PT Cruiser) out of retirement to refresh GM’s indifferent car designs, and in early 2002 it announced a complete restructuring of the design organization. The other OEMs (original equipment manufacturers, as the Big Three are known) have problems of their own?quality concerns in Ford’s case and leftover merger issues in DaimlerChrysler’s.

In the face of these changes, e-business leadership remains a centerpiece of Wagoner’s list of strategic priorities. The approach, in GM’s catchphrase, is "launch and learn," a philosophy that Wagoner describes thus: "Let’s get out, take on projects and trials in different places around the world, and see what works." A look at the company’s vast portfolio of e-business projects shows that GM is committed to continuing with that approach.

What’s on GM’s Plate

GM’s key e-business projects divide into two categories: Consumer and dealer links concerned with selling cars, and supplier links concerned with designing and manufacturing cars. By interconnecting more closely with those constituencies, GM aims to drive costs and time out of the value chain?all the way from vehicle design to post-sale care and, crucially, the demand as well.


For Consumers and Dealers: Online sales strike a chord among consumers in Brazil; U.S. dealers flock to web-based auctions.
General Motors Acceptance Corp. (GMAC) BuyPower. GMAC is GM’s finance arm. BuyPower is a consumer website that provides data on all GM models. Users can get details on the cost of options, such as tinted windows, and save such information in a personalized folder. The site also points potential buyers to nearby GM dealers, indicating the cars those dealers currently have in inventory. Since September 2001, BuyPower has delivered an average of more than 2,000 leads to dealers per day. According to data from J.D. Power and Associates, 20 percent of dealer leads generated through BuyPower convert into sales. That compares with slightly less than 13 percent of leads generated through the top independent site, Autobytel.com.