通用有望迎来女掌门

    1985年毕业时，芭拉拿到了电机工程学学位（同年与咨询工程师托尼·芭拉结婚，他们现育有两子），之后进入庞蒂克汽车的菲罗（Fiero）工厂，成为一名全职的高级工程师。她很快获得了工厂经理蒂姆·李（现负责通用汽车的国际运营和全球生产业务）的注意。蒂姆·李说：“我早就知道她会干得很出色。她有决心、有信心、有激情，而且这些特质一直伴随着她，激励着她。”

    芭拉的才能很快被发掘出来，成为一个重点培养的管理人员。后来她获得了通用汽车提供的奖学金，赴斯坦福商学院（Stanford Business School）进修，并以班级前10%的成绩顺利毕业。毕业后，她被任命为一名生产规划经理，并且碰到了另一位在通用汽车冉冉升起的新星——马克·罗伊斯。在通用汽车推出上一代凯迪拉克De Ville轿车时，二人曾一起共事过。罗斯伊说，在90年代高度政治化的通用汽车公司里，芭拉可以说是鹤立鸡群。他说：“她知道怎样搞好质量，她没有废话，没有偏见，也不搞小派系。”

    1996年，芭拉的事业获得了另一次突破。当时她被指派给CEO杰克·史密斯和副总裁哈里·皮尔斯，担任三年的高级助理工作。在跟史密斯工作期间，通用的业务搬到中国，芭拉也获得了开会坐在前排的机会。现在通用在中国的汽车销量已经超过了北美。在史密斯和皮尔斯的推荐下，芭拉升任内部沟通部门的负责人。当年美国联合汽车工会（UAW）发动了一次长达50天的大罢工，在那次罢工之后，这个有如一滩死水的部门变得异常重要。2003年，芭拉被任命为底特律-哈姆特拉米克装配工厂的经理，重新回到了工厂。在她任职期间，工厂生产质量数次获奖，工作环境变得更安全，而且成功地发布了两款新车——凯迪拉克DTS和别克马刀（LeSabre）。

    时任CEO的韩德胜在2009将芭拉提升为人力资源部门的负责人。这次提拔有些让人摸不着头脑。但通用当时刚刚宣布破产，在那段异常喧嚣的日子，韩德胜想让人力资源部门走数据导向型的路子，从而提高一些效率，同时重塑公司的文化。在通用汽车瘦身重组的过程中，芭拉埋首于员工薪资福利这种琐碎的工作。同时她在通用汽车的常务委员会中也有了一个席位，由此进入了阿克森的视野。两年后，阿克森把鲍伯·卢茨的继任人调离产品研发部门，让芭拉顶上了这个职位。

    在底特律时，芭拉平常每天早上6点或7点就开始工作，经常每天工作12个小时。她在底特律有两个办公室，她经常自己开着一辆凯迪拉克ATS到办公室。今年8月，她的家搬到了底特律西边更远的地方，因此每天上班要花上近1个小时。今年，芭拉每个月都要花一星期时间待在德国，解决欧宝的问题。通用和欧宝的关系斩不断、理还乱。2009年通用就想卖掉欧宝，后来又改变了主意——这主要是由于副总裁史蒂夫·吉斯基力争保住欧宝，但后果就是欧宝的销量一落千丈。吉斯基目前是欧宝的总裁，如果他能让欧宝起死回生，那么将来在争夺通用下一任CEO的宝座时，他将成为芭拉的强劲对手。不过芭拉并不认为存在什么竞争，她说：“欧宝不是我们的团队搞出的问题，但它是我们需要解决的问题。”

    同样的话也可以用在任何芭拉想解决的问题上。长期关注通用汽车的观察家玛丽安·凯勒说：“可以看出，她做的事也就是80年代末的成本、质量和竞争力问题。现在25年过去了，福特已经解决了这些问题，大众也一样，但通用汽车仍然需要一位高管来负责这些进程。”芭拉和她的前任的区别就是她的职位已经远远超过了她的预期，因此她已经无须证明什么，只需证明自己。“我是一个没有耐心的人——这种迫切感刺激着我。”芭拉是否有能力将这种紧迫感传递给她的29,000名员工将决定她的事业下一步会迎来怎样的辉煌。

    译者：朴成奎

    Following graduation in 1985 with a degree in electrical engineering (and after meeting Tony Barra, a consulting engineer whom she married that year; they now have two teen-age children), Barra went to work fulltime as a senior engineer in the Pontiac Fiero plant. She quickly came to the attention of plant manager Tim Lee, now GM's head of international operations and global manufacturing. "I knew early on that she would do well," says Lee. "She was determined, confident and passionate, and these traits continue to define her and drive her."

    Quickly tabbed as a high-potential executive, Barra won a GM fellowship to attend Stanford Business School and graduated in the top 10% of her class. Out of school, she was made a manager of manufacturing planning and encountered another fast-rising young executive, Mark Reuss. Working together on the launch of what would be the last generation Cadillac De Ville, Reuss says Barra stood out in the highly politicized GM of the 1990s. Says he: "She knows how to do quality. She's no nonsense, plays no favorites, and has no cliques."

    Barra's career got another boost in 1996 when she began a three-year stint as executive assistant to CEO Jack Smith and vice chairman Harry Pearce. Working for Smith, she got a front row seat as GM moved into China, where it now sells more cars than in North America. With their recommendation, she was sent to run internal communications, a corporate backwater that had turned critical following a nasty 50-day UAW strike. Barra hired, trained, and led a network of specialists to improve communications throughout the company, especially with union workers. In 2003, Barra went back to the factory floor as manager of the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, which had a history of troubled automation. She managed to win quality awards, make the workplace safer, and successfully launch two new vehicles, the Cadillac DTS and Buick LeSabre.

    Then-CEO Fritz Henderson plucked Barra from engineering in 2009 to make her head of Human Resources. The move seemed a head-scratcher, but GM had just declared bankruptcy, and Henderson was trying to bring some data-oriented efficiency to HR and reshape the culture at a very tumultuous time. As GM downsized and restructured, Barra immersed herself in the minutiae of compensation and benefits. She also got a seat on GM's executive committee, which brought her to Akerson's attention. Two years later, he moved Bob Lutz's successor out of product development and put Barra in.

    When in Detroit, Barra's workday starts at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. and runs a good 12 hours. She drives herself in a Cadillac ATS to one of her two offices -- a trip that takes nearly an hour since her family moved further west from Detroit in August. This year, she spent about one week a month in Germany trying to straighten out Opel. GM has had a tortured relationship with its European affiliate, arranging to sell it in 2009 and then reversing its decision -- largely at the urging of vice chairman Steve Girsky -- only to see sales collapse along with the European economy. Girsky is now Opel's chairman and Barra's likely competitor to succeed Akerson if he can turn Opel around, but Barra doesn't see any rivalry. "Opel is not a problem our team created, but it is ours to solve," she says.

    That same could be said about everything Barra is trying to solve. "The stuff she is supposed to be doing were revealed as cost, quality and competitive issues in the late 1980s," says longtime GM watcher Maryann Keller. "It's now 25 years later, and Ford has figured it out and so has VW, but GM still needs an executive in charge of processes." What sets Barra apart from her predecessors is that having risen far higher than she ever expected, she has nothing to prove -- except to herself. "I'm an impatient person -- it gnaws at me." Her ability to convey that same sense of urgency to all 29,000 of her employees will determine the nature of the next stage in her remarkable career.