Words matter. These are the best Mary Barra Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Connectivity offers a great opportunity for General Motors. When you look at the investment we have made in OnStar and putting 4GLT in and the access you have to not only put data in, and we haven’t really tapped into the data you can use from the vehicle.
I have worked for a lot of really great leaders and mentors that I felt provided me, along with many of my peers – many of them women – opportunities.
My parents were both born and raised in the Depression. They instilled great values about integrity and the importance of hard work, and I’ve taken that with me to every job.
A car is thirty thousand parts you’re putting together.
When I am there at our global product development centers, I am meeting with the design team and reviewing design work being done there and meeting with engineers responsible for work being done specific to that region, meeting with purchasing team.
If you do every job like you’re going to do it for the rest of your life, that’s when you get noticed.
Lyft is focused on the customer – the driver – as GM is. I’ve talked many times about our goal being, ‘How we can put the customer at the center of what we do so we earn customers for life?’ It’s a very common goal of putting the customer first.
When you look at the Chevrolet Volt, those customers are some of the most satisfied across the industry.
My goal is for General Motors to lead in safe autonomous driving.
One of our most promising technologies is Super Cruise, which is the working name for an innovative system coming to Cadillac in the 2016 time frame. It will allow you to drive on the highway without touching the wheel or pedals, both at speed and in stop-and-go driving.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint. I actually feel like I come to work stronger when I’ve had a little time on the weekend to step away from it and enjoy my family and other things. I come back energized. If people think they’re going to work 24/7, week in and week out, they’re not bringing their full strength to the table.
My advice on firing is simple: Treat that person the same way you’d want to be treated if you were in that situation. They’re still a good person, just not the right fit. So how do you help them move on in a productive way that allows them to maintain their dignity?
My father was a die maker for 39 years, so I had a basic understanding of the automobile industry and what the manufacturing world was like, just from the opportunity to spend time with him – just talking, because he was a car buff.
When you look at the truck market in North America, you have to understand the customer, and that’s one of the things I think General Motors does really well. There’s a big population that buys our trucks. It’s their life – or it’s their livelihood. Not their lifestyle, their livelihood. It’s a work truck.
I know we’re all addicted to our smartphones, and I’ll say, if I forget my smartphone, I go home and get it. And so understanding how to integrate that technology into the driving experience, both the front seat and the passenger seat and the back seat, I think is very important.
What I always say is, ‘Do every job you’re in like you’re going to do it for the rest of your life, and demonstrate that ownership of it.’
My first job at General Motors was as a quality inspector on the assembly line. I was checking fits between hoods and fenders. I had a little scale and clipboard. At one point, I was probably examining 60 jobs an hour during an eight-hour shift. A job like that teaches you to value all the people who do a job like that.
My definition of ‘innovative’ is providing value to the customer.
