The Maverick Who’s Trying to Get More of the Herd to Buy Olds : Autos: Blunt-talking John Rock is trying to save General Motors’ Oldsmobile division from extinction.
John Rock’s maverick style and blunt language would probably stand out at any company. But they make him a curiosity at General Motors Corp., where most executives are staid and their every public utterance carefully measured.
Last month the general manager of the venerable but troubled Oldsmobile division told dealers and employees via satellite broadcast that they were “looking at one pissed-off cowboy” over rumors that Olds faced elimination in GM’s downsizing.
And Rock didn’t stop there. Now that GM has forcefully denied the rumors, he sheepishly admits that he might have gone too far in his criticism of GM’s directors for purportedly being the source of the leaks to the Washington Post.
“I’m not necessarily proud of some of the things I did or said, but on the other hand, if I had to do it over again, I probably wouldn’t change much,” Rock said in an interview at his office in Olds’ marble-and-glass headquarters near the Michigan Capitol.
The 59-year-old Rock, tall and strapping even before adding the extra height of his favorite Stetson, could be the aging cowboy sent over from Central Casting.
A lifelong GM employee--counting his youth as the son of a Chevrolet dealer in Groton, S.D.--Rock is as loyal to the auto maker as he is candid in assessing its problems.
“Everything I own, I owe to GM. My father was a dealer for 40 years, my father-in-law was a dealer all his life. That’s how I met my wife (Bonnie). It’s the only job I’ve ever had,” said Rock, who joined the Olds division in April as part of GM’s recent management shake-up. “One thing I’d never do is go to work for a competitor.”
Rock began his GM career as a district manager trainee for Buick in Flint. He moved steadily up the corporate ladder, with jobs that included heading GM’s Holden Motors venture in Australia and GMC Truck division.
Over the years, he has gained a reputation as a trouble-shooter on the people and products side of the corporation. Three assignments were especially prickly -- righting the floundering Holden Motors, letting air out of the bloated truck division and resurrecting Oldsmobile.
The Olds challenge may be Rock’s greatest. The division as recently as 1986 sold a million cars a year.
Now the longest-running American nameplate is trying to remake itself by repositioning its cars, dealerships and culture as a place for buyers of GM’s popular Saturn small cars to move up to.
“You’ve got six nameplates,” Rock said. “If you’ve got Buick and us sharing second base, it’s a waste of resources.”
Olds is counting on Saturn’s early success to grow it a market of new customers.
So far, only a few Saturn customers say they would consider another GM car next time.
