GM's IPO is behind it. The IPO's success--and the lining up of people taking credit for it--serves as testament to the truism that success has a thousand authors but failure is an orphan. Even our President is in on the act; pushing Steve Rattner aside to take credit for this achievement.
And why not? We can debate whether the bailouts should have happened but it would be churlish to suggest that once the money was invested, things could have gone much better.
Yesterday, the President emphasized the wisdom of the “tough choices” made during the dark days of GM’s restructuring; remarks I found inspiring. So much so, I'd like to suggest we learn from this experience. Let’s take the lessons from the Auto Task Force and use them to benefit other troubled organizations.
In fact, let’s take it up a notch.
Let’s try for a real impact. Let’s look for the largest, most dysfunctional, most indebted organization we can find. One where expenses far outstrip revenues. One with the largest unfunded pensions and with health care costs spiraling out of control. One with the most obdurate leadership and most intransigent unions. One with the most moribund culture and with products and services that are woefully out of date.
Can anyone guess the organization I am nominating for a Task Force treatment?
The best news of all is that it's right there in Washington.
