通用汽车首席营销官被炒之谜

    通用汽车公司（General Motor）首席营销官乔尔•伊万尼克知道自己有麻烦了。被炒之前的一周，有熟知内情的人表示，他在讲述当前的项目时，便已经在使用过去时了，而且他看起来比以往更加安静。有知情者称：“很明显，他明白有事情要发生了。”

    很快，所有人都知道了伊万尼克似乎还在怀疑的事情：曾经的明日之星突然陨落。7月29日，通用汽车用一则简单的声明宣布伊万尼克辞职。通用汽车发言人格雷格•马丁对媒体表示，伊万尼克“未能达到公司的预期。”他指的应该是通用汽车与欧洲最大的足球俱乐部曼联（Manchester United）之间价值5.59亿美元、长达七年的赞助合同。

    内部人士称，伊万尼克没有如实向高层汇报赞助合同的财务细节，他告诉公司CEO兼董事会主席丹尼尔•艾克森，美国最大的汽车制造商在这份合同上的实际支出比最初与曼联议定的金额低了三分之一。（此事被披露之后，合同被重新修订。）内部人士称，面对与此相关的质问，伊万尼克反复否认存在虚报行为。通用汽车拒绝对此予以评论。目前，我们无法联系到伊万尼克本人。

    到目前为止，大多数人并不知道，在伊万尼克离职背后，当事人的个人魅力和人际关系到底有多大的影响。《财富》杂志（Fortune）了解到，伊万尼克与艾克森的关系惊人的密切，虽然两人在管理和交流风格方面存在巨大的差异。艾克森毕业于美国海军学院（U.S. Naval Academy），曾在美国海军服役五年，他在公众面前一直是一副处事圆滑、寡言少语的形象。而伊万尼克于2010年5月加入通用汽车，他做人棱角分明，他曾经的同事评价他有一些鲁莽。

    换言之，他与大多数首席营销官截然不同。分析人士认为，在数项预算中，他可能并未就分摊和曼联的合作成本做太多的考虑。美国知名汽车网站Edmunds.com的分析师米歇尔•克雷布斯称：“他以前就干过这种事。”其他知情人士表示，5.59亿美元仅占通用汽车总广告预算的12%，而曼联近期的IPO估值达23亿美元，成为全球最有价值的球队之一，所以，与曼联合作的开支只有5.59亿美元，算不上一笔很大的数目。

    伊万尼克虚报合约的行为曝光是因为手下有人告密。然而，虽然这件事被视为伊万尼克被解雇的导火索，但有知情人士表示，伊万尼克矢口否认虚报问题，决定了艾克森对他的最终判决。内部人士称：“这件事成为导致他遭到驱逐的最后一根稻草。”

    虽然艾克森与伊万尼克有着显而易见的差异，但两人的经营风格都极富侵略性。曾帮助通用汽车处理破产问题的一名前政府官员认为，艾克森是个急性子，同时拥有很好的行事风格。自从2010年担任CEO之后，他迅速在公司内部展开大刀阔斧的改革。这位前政府官员还表示：“丹喜欢把同样充满欲望和冲劲的人才招至麾下。”

    加入通用汽车之前，伊万尼克在日产汽车（Nissan）有过很短时间的任职，他的运营风格与艾克森极为相似。与他共事的人都说，前一天他可能非常支持某个点子，但第二天就把它看得一文不值，迫使他的团队不得不从头再来，想出更好的点子。“他会让你一直忙个不停，”伊万尼克的前同事说。伊万尼克在现代汽车（Hyundai）担任营销总监时，这种行事风格的效果明显。他帮助现代汽车提高了销量，主要原因是这家韩国汽车制造商的美国分公司实际上就是一家营销公司。但克雷布斯认为，在通用汽车，“他必须考虑一些之前根本不需要考虑的内部问题。”

    这正是导致两位高管产生矛盾的地方。六月份，伊万尼克在戛纳的讲话被活动报道描述为风趣幽默，讨人喜欢，这无疑展现了伊万尼克人性化的一面。据彭博新闻社（Bloomberg News）报道，后来，艾克森因为此事责备了伊万尼克。此外，在社交网络Facebook进行IPO之前几天，伊万尼克公开谈论通用汽车停止在Facebook上投放广告的决定，对此，艾克森也非常不满。但很明显，当得知伊万尼克在与曼联的合作中误导管理层之后，他清楚自己不可能再简单地训伊万尼克一顿了事，也不能再睁一眼闭一眼装糊涂。

    当然，这份处在漩涡中心的足球赞助协议最终能否有助于通用汽车的销售，尤其是在欧洲市场的销售，现在还言之尚早。但在未来几年内，这对伊万尼克来说应该是一个明智的决定。

    如今，前首席营销官显得非常低调。在被辞退的消息传出后，他便陪同家人来到密歇根北部度假。有传言称，他将写一本书，或者进行巡回演讲，但这些都只是猜测，我们并不知道伊万尼克会选择哪条路。有熟知内情的人表示：“一切来得太快了。他现在还没有完全消化。”

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    Joel Ewanick, General Motor's chief marketing officer, knew trouble was brewing. During the week leading up to his ouster, sources familiar with the situation say he had started to refer to current projects in the past tense and seemed quieter than usual. "It was kind of clear he knew something was going to happen," one source says.

    The rest of the world quickly learned what Ewanick apparently suspected: the once-rising star had flamed out. On July 29, GM (GM) announced Ewanick's resignation through a terse statement and GM spokesman Greg Martin told the press, Ewanick "failed to meet the expectations the company has of an employee." The failure centered on the $559 million, seven-year sponsorship deal GM inked with Manchester United, Europe's largest soccer team.

    Insiders say Ewanick misrepresented the deal to upper management, telling CEO and chairman Daniel Akerson that the largest automaker in the U.S. was spending about a third less on the deal than what was originally agreed upon with Manchester United. (Upon the revelation, the deal was reworked.) When confronted about the situation, Ewanick repeatedly denied the misrepresentation, insiders say. GM declined further comment. Ewanick couldn't be reached for comment.

    What hasn't been widely known until now was the degree to which personal dynamics -- and personal relationships -- played a role in Ewanick's departure. Fortune has learned that Ewanick and Akerson were surprisingly close, despite deep differences in their management and communications styles. Akerson, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who served in the Navy for five years, is polished and buttoned-up in public settings while Ewanick, who joined GM in May 2010, is rough around the edges, and some former colleagues describe him as a bit impetuous.

    In other words, he's not unlike a lot of marketing executives. And analysts suggest he probably didn't think twice about spreading the cost of the Manchester United deal among several budgets. "It's the kind of thing that's been done in the past," says Edmunds.com senior analyst Michelle Krebs. Other sources add that $559 million is only 12 percent of GM's entire advertising budget – a small amount to spend on a deal with Manchester United, whose recent IPO valued one of the most valuable sports franchise in the world at $2.3 billion.

    But while the deal misrepresentation, which was brought to light by a whistleblower within Ewanick's division, sparked the ouster, sources say that Ewanick's denial of it sealed his fate with Akerson. "That may have been the final straw," an insider says.

    For all their outward differences, Akerson and Ewanick shared an aggressive operating style. A former administration official who helped GM through its bankruptcy describes Akerson as impatient "in a good way;" he's moved quickly through the company to make changes since taking over as CEO in 2010. The former official adds, "Dan wants to bring in guys who share his hunger and drive."

    Ewanick, who spent a brief stint at Nissan (NSANY) before joining GM, operated in a similar fashion. People who worked with him say he might rally behind an idea one day and squash it the next, forcing his team to go back to square one to find something better. "He really kept you on your toes," says one person who worked with Ewanick. That style worked well for the marketing guru at Hyundai, where he helped spur sales, because the U.S. arm of the Korean automaker essentially operated as a marketing firm. But at GM, "he had to pay attention internally on levels he never had to think about on an import," Krebs says.

    And that's where tension arose between the two executives. When Ewanick cursed during a talk in Cannes in June, a source at the event describes it as funny and endearing, putting a human face on Ewanick. Akerson later chastised the marketing exec for the incident, according to Bloomberg News. Similarly, Akerson wasn't pleased when Ewanick publicly discussed GM's decision to pull its advertising from Facebook (FB) days before the social networking firm's IPO. But apparently Akerson felt he could not simply scold or look the other way when he learned Ewanick misled management about the Manchester United dealings.

    Of course it's too early to tell whether the soccer sponsorship at the center of the maelstrom ultimately will help GM's sales, particularly in Europe. But Years from now, it may look like a brilliant move on Ewanick's part.

    In the meantime the former marketing chief is lying low. After the news of his resignation broke he took his family to upstate Michigan for vacation. And there's speculation that he may write a book or go on a speaking circuit, though it's unclear if Ewanick will go that route. "It happened so quickly," says a source familiar with the situation. "He's still processing it all."