generalmotors

With CBS boss Les Moonves indicating that his network is planning to demand $4 million… 1

This entry was posted in GPCP Uncategorized and tagged generalmotors Google+ superbowlcommercials on by (updated 3589 days ago)

With CBS boss Les Moonves indicating that his network is planning to demand $4 million for a 30 second Super Bowl ad slot (up from $3.5 million this year) it's no wonder that +General Motors has opted to say "thanks but no thanks."

I'm guessing that GM will actually make a series of Super Bowl style ads just as they did this year and in years past. The only difference is that they won't actually run during the broadcast of the game.

If you think back to the week leading up to the game this year and the last several years, most of the big ads had already been posted on Youtube and most people had seen them long before kickoff. There were almost no surprises during the game. GM's Super Bowl ads will get just as much attention during the pre-game period and without costing them a penny.
#generalmotors #superbowlcommercials

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Why GM spurned the 2013 Super Bowl
NEW YORK — Not long after announcing that it will stop advertising on Facebook, General Motors said Friday it would not be a sponsor in the Super Bowl in 2013 either. What's going on here? Deep-p…

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James Treece does an excellent compare and contrast of the impacts of Derrick Kuzak…

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged boblutz cars derrickkuzak ford generalmotors Google+ on by (updated 4592 days ago)

James Treece does an excellent compare and contrast of the impacts of Derrick Kuzak and Bob Lutz on +Ford Motor Company and +General Motors and I have my own thoughts on the matter.
#ford #generalmotors #derrickkuzak #boblutz #cars

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On the legacies of Derrick Kuzak and Bob Lutz « Sam's Thoughts
James Treece does an excellent compare and contrast of the impacts of Derrick Kuzak and Bob Lutz on Ford and General Motors in the latest Automotive News. As much as I admire Lutz, if you look back ov…

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Some interesting moves over at +General Motors today

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged chevyvolt generalmotors Google+ on by (updated 4635 days ago)

Some interesting moves over at +General Motors today. A few weeks back Tom Stephens announced that he was retiring after a long career with GM. Today, the company announced that Alan Taub, who is currently VP of Research and Development will also be retiring.

Jon Lauckner, who is acknowledged as one of the two fathers of the Chevy Volt, will be replacing both Taub and Stephens, becoming Chief Technology Officer and VP of R&D. In addition to his new roles, Lauckner will continue to oversee the GM Ventures, the venture capital fund that the automaker established in 2010.

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#generalmotors #chevyvolt

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GM's Lauckner to replace retiring Stephens as technology chief
DETROIT — General Motors said today it has named Jon Lauckner vice chairman and chief technology officer, effective April 1. He will replace Tom Stephens who retires on that date. In his new role, La…

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A year ago this week, the third to last Space Shuttle mission, STS-133 finally launched… 1

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged generalmotors gm Google+ iss nasa r2 robonaut2 on by (updated 4643 days ago)

A year ago this week, the third to last Space Shuttle mission, STS-133 finally launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a delay of almost 4 months to address technical issues.

On board the shuttle was a crate containing a Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot co-developed by +NASA and engineers from +General Motors. What makes R2 different from other robots like Honda's Asimo is that it was designed to do actual work alongside humans both on the International Space Station and eventually in factories here on earth.

That means it is a lot stronger than Asimo which can do some fancy dance moves, but can't lift much weight.

In October 2010 when I was working on product and technology communications for GM, I went down to Florida to support some media events in conjunction with the original planned launch date. The second R2 prototype was being used to demonstrate the robot's capabilities. You can see most of the demo in this video with NASA engineer Nicholas Radford.

A few days ago, the crew on board the ISS finally powered up R2 and began the testing of its control systems in micro-gravity. http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/16/2802290/nasa-robonaut-human-robot-handshake-iss

#robonaut2 #r2 #iss #nasa #generalmotors #gm

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Two of the top engineers in the US auto industry will both be retiring on April 1….

This entry was posted in cars and tagged 2013FordFusion derrickkuzak engineering ford fordfusionstory generalmotors gm Google+ tomstephens on by (updated 4654 days ago)

Two of the top engineers in the US auto industry will both be retiring on April 1. Ford announced this morning that group vice president for global product development Derrick Kuzak will be leaving after 34 years with the company. While CEO Alan Mulally has received much of the public credit for turning around Ford in the last five years, in the auto industry a plan is only as good as the products that roll off the assembly line.

Kuzak is a soft spoken engineer that doesn't have the flash of Bob Lutz but he certainly has the product development chops and understands where the investment needs to go create best in class vehicles. Having spent a number of years at Ford of Europe he was familiar with the products there and what the market was looking for and when Mulally brought him back to Dearborn to lead the ONE Ford effort, he knew exactly what to do. He assembled a great team and like Steve Jobs at Apple he saw what needed to be cut and what should go forward. Hopefully the team he assembled will continue to execute the plan in the coming years.

Just a couple of weeks earlier, General Motors announced that chief technical officer Tom Stephens is also leaving. Like Kuzak, Stephens wasn't typically the public facing voice of GM, but he spent his entire 43 year career in the engineering ranks at GM. After Lutz retired in 2009, Stephens succeeded him as vice chairman responsible for global product development before moving into the new role of CTO a year ago.

Both men helped lead their teams through tumultuous times in the industry and they will be missed. Let's hope their successors have the same kind of vision about where to go in the next decade.

Check out Kuzak talking about global product development and the new 2013 Ford Fusion in the video.

#derrickkuzak #tomstephens #ford #2013fordfusion #fordfusionstory #gm #generalmotors #engineering

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