通用有望迎来女掌门

    芭拉在阿克森努力重构通用汽车的企业文化的过程中已经成了他的左膀右臂。作为负责全球产品研发的高级副总裁，芭拉手握通用在五个大洲、29,000名员工、150亿美元的预算，由她负责研发出的车型，将被卖往全球130个国家。芭拉已经开始着手重组通用过时、低效的汽车生产流程，加快开发全球平台，同时在拯救欧宝的努力中扮演了主要角色。最近，她废除了由三个高管各负责一款产品研发的旧模式，改为让一名高管负总责，此举导致通用公司裁撤了20个高级职位。据说过不了多久，通用还将进行一次重组，弱化地区分公司的权力，把更多权利集中在芭拉等全球领导手里。更重要的是，芭拉还加强了她与阿克森的关系，阿克森向《财富》表扬她是“一位强有力的领导者和变革推动者，从工厂、设计室到董事会，里里外外的业务她都懂。”阿克森已经把芭拉列入CEO继承人的候选名单里。

    未来12个月里，芭拉还面临着两次至关重要的测试。首先，她要确保新款全尺寸皮卡和SUV的成功发布，因为这两个车型占了通用汽车总利润的大头。其次，她还要推出以新科鲁兹为首的新一代小型车。据路透社（Reuters）报道，到2014年秋天，以新科鲁兹为标志的通用全球平台将正式建成，届时它将年产250万辆轿车和跨界车，包括雪佛兰的沃蓝兰、艾诺斯和欧宝阿斯特拉等车型。现在通用有70%的销量来自美国以外的地区，因此全球平台能否成功对通用的竞争力至关重要——而且也决定了芭拉能否有机会在职场上更上一层楼。

    芭拉已经在通用汽车工作了32年，可以说把一生都奉献给了这家公司。芭拉不是一个行事拖泥带水的人，她表面上给人的印象是略显急躁，而不是雄心勃勃。她开会是典型的效率优先：她会把相关方召集起来，确定问题所在，请大家讨论，做出决策，然后就去解决下一件事。芭拉不喜欢通用汽车传统的等级制度，她对下属们说：“我的规则就是你们的规则”，而且她坚持通过说服教育进行管理，而不是通过规定。芭拉对笔者说：“如果有一天他们说：‘我之所以这样做，是因为玛丽让我这样做的，’那就是我失败的一天。’她快刀斩乱麻的作风令人印象深刻。在担任人力资源主管时，她把公司关于工作期间着装的各种规定缩短成一句话：“穿着得体”。芭拉自己穿着一套公司发的裤装，涂着黑色指甲油，戴一付彩虹框的眼镜，穿着4寸高的高根鞋。她有着斯堪的纳维亚人的好面孔（她的父母都是芬兰人），眼神天真无害，性格异常直率，这样的秉性在过去的通用汽车可能很难混得下去。有人在一次员工会议上问她怎样看待获得了大肆宣传的2013凯迪拉克ATS轿车，她委婉地压低了人们的预期，答道：“老实说：对于那些想买宝马的人来说，凯迪拉克可能不会排在他们候选名单的第一位。”

    As Akerson continues his efforts to remake GM's dysfunctional culture, Barra has become one of his principal agents. The senior vice president for global product development, she oversees a budget of $15 billion for 29,000 employees on five continents responsible for designing and developing vehicles that are sold in 130 countries. She has begun rebuilding GM's outmoded and inefficient vehicle engineering process, accelerated efforts to develop global platforms, and taken a leading role in the struggle to save Opel. In a recent move, she scrapped a system that made three different executives responsible for each model's development and devised a more streamlined structure that puts a single chief executive in charge -- a move that resulted in the elimination of 20 senior positions. Still to come: a rumored reorganization that loosens the power of GM's long-standing regional fiefdoms and puts more power in the hands of global leaders like Barra. Most important, she has strengthened her ties to Akerson, who praises Barra to Fortuneas "a strong leader and change agent who knows the business inside and out -- from the plant floor and the design studio to the boardroom." He has put her on his shortlist of internal candidates to succeed him as CEO.

    Barra faces a pair of crucial tests in the next 12 months. First, she is overseeing the launch of new versions of the full-size pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles that produce the vast bulk of GM's profits. Then she is leading the introduction of a new generation of small cars headed by the Chevrolet Cruze. Due in the fall of 2014, the compact Cruze will mark the debut of a global platform that will underpin 2.5 million sedans and crossovers annually, according to Reuters, including Chevrolet's Volt and Equinox and the Opel Astra. Now that 70% of GM's sales come from outside the U.S., its success is critical to GM's ability to remain competitive -- and to Barra's chances at another promotion.

    After 32 years at the automaker, Barra has the resume of a GM lifer -- but absent the usual baggage. Impatience, not ambition, is her dominant trait. Her meetings are models of efficiency: She gathers the relevant parties, identifies issues, invites discussion, makes a decision, and moves on. Uncomfortable in GM's traditional hierarchy, she tells subordinates "My rules are your rules," and insists on managing by persuasion rather than fiat. "The day they say 'I'm doing it because Mary told me to do it,' is the day I lose," she told me. Her ability to cut through GM's organizational fog is memorable. As head of HR, she reduced company rules for on-the-job apparel to two words: "Dress appropriately." Barra dresses up her own corporate-issue pantsuits with black nail polish, rainbow-framed reading glasses, and four-inch heels. With Scandinavian good looks (both her parents are Finnish) and disarmingly doe-eyed, she is subject to fits of candor that would have derailed her career at the old GM. Asked at an employee meeting about prospects for the much-ballyhooed 2013 Cadillac ATS, she deftly dampened expectations when she replied, "Let's be honest: Cadillac may not be at the top of the shopping list of someone wanting to buy a BMW."