What ever happened with GM?

On this day after Bastille Day, I'm thinking again about this new discussion of GM linking up with Renault-Nissan. Who would have ever dreamed that the once-largest company in the world could fall so far that besides shutting down factories across America (while Japanese automakers are building them) might benefit from an affiliation with Renault, a French automaker? Renault has a pretty bad reputation in the US, mostly for shipping over some of their worst models that underperformed and many American business people tend to have a low regard for French business, perhaps thinking of duds like the old Renault-USA as well as our steady stream of strikes that can easily grind down business plus our generous vacation schedules.

The fact remains that France has one of the highest hourly productivity rates in the world (though over the course of the year those numbers are minimized during industrial actions) and even with our vacation schedules (which produce a more relaxed population) here we are looking at the reality that GM needs help and plenty of it. I am amazed at how little is out there in the US about this historic turn of events. GM had all of the money in the world, a massive market that believed buying anything besides GM/American was unpatriotic, friends in Washington and state/local governments, big government contracts/corporate welfare and yet they still couldn't find a way to make it all work.

What an amazing fall from grace for GM and no doubt MBA case study material of how to ruin a thriving business, for years to come. Americans love to admire business leaders and give them the spotlight and right now, I think these so-called leaders actually do deserve the spotlight and plenty of it. How in the hell did they screw up so badly?