Company combines research, product teams in makeover

DETROIT (AP) — The new General Motors Co. began changing its executive ranks and streamlining its management structure Wednesday, announcing the departure of several top officials.

The biggest change is combining research with product development effective immediately. The two had been separate teams.

GM says the move is a step toward making the company more agile and efficient.

The company also says Vice President of Research and Development Larry Burns and Vice President of Communications Steve Harris will each retire effective Oct. 1.

CEO Fritz Henderson promised to streamline GM’s bureaucratic management structure and cut executive ranks by 35 percent. Changes are to be announced by the end of July.

Combining product development and long-term research gives GM the ability to tie research to future products, but it also could cause it to get shortchanged at budget time, said Martin Zimmerman, a former Ford Motor Co. chief economist who now is a professor of business administration at the University of Michigan.

“The product development guys are rightly going to be concerned about the near-term deployment of the technology, and the R&D guys typically are concerned about farther out,” Zimmerman said. “The management problem comes when you have your budgeting decisions and there’s going to be a tug between stuff that looks near-term and the longer-lead stuff.”

In the old GM, several committees often reviewed decisions, holding up new vehicles and making it slow to respond to market changes. Designs were often changed from bold to bland, with GM stamping out nondescript cars such as the old Chevrolet Malibu.

Burns will be replaced by Alan Taub, 54, who serves as executive director of research and development and is in charge of GM’s seven science laboratories across the globe.

Harris will be replaced by Chris Preuss, 43, who is vice president of global product and European communications.