I bounced all over the corporation. I talked to tire people, engine people, lubricant people, air conditioning people, and so forth. If the component used energy, I had them on my list. To this day I remember some of the exact things they told me, but the sense of the message was just about the same everywhere. To paraphrase, they said, “We know there are bad cold-start properties to our component, but our component doesn’t make up enough of the problem for us to get our managers interested. There are solutions we know will work, but they cost a little more than what we are currently doing. Your 15% number will really help us.”
Nothing was being done because nobody had enough skin in the game to pursue a solution.
I was not being humiliated! I was being vindicated! I took copious notes. I didn’t think Spreitzer could be easily persuaded, but maybe I still had a long-shot future at GM.
This was pretty much how my first day and a half of interviews went until I showed up at Engineering Staff just after lunch on the second day of interviews. I had an appointment with an engine person. When I checked in at the reception desk, I was told the meeting had been moved. I was escorted to a large executive office. The engine guy was there. Also there were maybe 8 other people in expensive suits. A couple of them introduced themselves by name but not by title. I felt I had somehow fallen into a moderate-sized law firm. Everyone was glum. No smiles, no pleasantries, no offers of coffee, no anything human. I was on trial, and I was surrounded by the judge and jury. I had no Miranda rights and no representation.
For the next three hours I was grilled about the report. No technical detail was too small. If they did not understand my answer they asked again. They asked me about my motivations and my difficulties at getting the report printed. They asked about my background and qualifications. With out so much as a thank you, I was dismissed.
The day was not yet over. I walked back to the Research Labs and to my shared office to sulk. This was a disaster. I was finished. Tobin was there waiting for me. I told him what had happened, and he consoled me. I canceled the rest of my interviews.
I felt awful the next morning. I hadn’t slept much, and I didn’t have anything important to do anyway. I read Ward’s Auto World and waited for the axe to fall.
Later that day Rothery showed up at my shared office and told me Spreitzer wanted to see me. I went in immediately and was told to shut the door. Spreitzer was furious. Then he asked in a barely controlled voice, “What the hell did you tell Engineering Staff?”
I briefly summarized the meeting and left. I figured my next meeting with Spreitzer would be my last. I was pretty much correct on that deduction.
I pieced the rest of the story together from second and third hand information. Nobody in the GM Research Labs management seemed willing to talk to me. I teased out most of the story from Tobin, who served as intermediary. Tobin could not keep his cool either, but maybe he was still the better choice for conveying actionable information. The antagonism level in the department was sky high. It took some time for me to figure out what was happening. I can only guess at the order of events occurring behind closed doors.
The vice president for Engineering had phoned the vice president for Research.
Alan Horowitz, Whitefish Bay, October 13, 2019.