专访通用拼车业务掌门人

今年初，通用汽车公司推出了一项名为Maven，作为子公司独立运作的拼车服务。该品牌整合了这家汽车巨头的三大测试项目：一个基于城市，按照小时或天数租赁通用系列汽车的服务；一个为纽约和芝加哥合作公寓的居民提供按需用车服务的项目；还有一个目前只在欧洲运营的点对点拼车服务。

Maven团队共有40人，其领导者是通用汽车城市移动主管茱莉亚•斯泰恩。斯泰恩曾担任通用汽车企业发展、全球并购业务副总裁，以及美国铝业公司并购业务副总裁，积累了在高风险环境中担任领导的丰富经验。《财富》特邀请她谈谈Maven，汽车业的未来，以及管理一群千禧世代和谷歌前员工的感受。

以下为专访摘要：

《财富》杂志：你是如何看待Maven业务的？

茱莉亚•斯泰恩：关于这项服务，我其实已经认真思考了很长一段时间。去年9月，Maven正式进入公司日程，但我们好几年前就开始了这方面的工作。拼车是未来出行的第一块基石，与打车应用Lyft的合作则是另一块基石，借助这一合作我们去设想更远的未来，终有一天，汽车将实现自动化。我认为Maven就是公司的未来。

《财富》杂志：你把Maven看作通用汽车的未来，但有人把它看作对公司现有商业模式的潜在威胁。你怎么回应这些反对者？

茱莉亚•斯泰恩：我完全没有把它看作威胁。我认为汽车业的生态系统一直在变化，Maven所做的就是把按需出行服务提供给那些没有车的人。我们面对的是许多从来没有接触过我们的产品的新面孔和年轻人。这不是一种竞争关系。

《财富》杂志：你认为谁会是主要的竞争对手？福特、奥迪和宝马也试图进军这一行业，当然，还有一些专攻这一领域的公司，例如ZipCar。

茱莉亚•斯泰恩：目前，我专注于同自己竞争——试图在每一个消费者关注的细节上取得进步。尽管出行领域的竞争非常激烈，但对我来说，消费者才是一切的核心。我怎样才能提供具有持续竞争力的服务？我怎样才能与消费者一同进步？在密歇根州安阿伯市，我们将要与移动信息服务应用Whatsapp进行试点合作，与消费者进行交流。消费者可以联系我和团队的其他人，我们可以直接听取他们的意见。这才是我真正感兴趣的事情。

《财富》杂志：你还通过其他哪些渠道与消费者沟通？

茱莉亚•斯泰恩：把智能手机应用与汽车连接起来，就能激出火花。Maven用户可以实现无缝连接。你下载了应用，选择了汽车，智能手机就能成为你打开车门的钥匙。你可以把整个数字生活带入车内。我们强烈相信，未来的汽车共享体验，需要营造出“你拥有这辆车”一样的感觉。你插上手机，音响里就能立刻传出你的音乐，你喜欢的歌曲。

《财富》杂志：听起来像是千禧世代的梦想。你的团队中大部分人都是千禧世代吗？如果是的话，你有没有觉得管理他们就像人们说的那样充满挑战？

茱莉亚•斯泰恩：对，大部分都是千禧世代。他们促使我每天想出新的点子，做新的事情。我们的风格更像是在硅谷，而不是在一家老派的汽车公司。能吸引这样的人才，让我感到十分兴奋。我们有来自谷歌、ZipCar，现在还有来自最近收购的SideCar的员工。我没觉得管理千禧世代是很难的事。也许这是因为我从来没有真正长大。重要的是，这些人才想留下，公司正在倾听他们的想法，各种想法不断涌现。在Maven，我们就是这样做的，所以没什么问题。我没有感觉到什么管理问题，问题只在于优先权的排序——这里的想法太多了！

《财富》杂志：谈到管理，你在玛丽•巴拉的手下工作，她是《财富》最具影响力女性榜单中的第一名，无与伦比。在女性管理的公司中工作，是一种什么样的感受？

茱莉亚•斯泰恩：我认为玛丽之所以管理这家公司，是因为她很有资格管理这家公司——我从来没有关注她或者我的性别。不过，如果有人因为玛丽担任首席执行官，其他女性也处在权力高层而加入通用汽车，我也会很激动，因为这意味着我们鼓舞了新一代年轻女性。也就是说，我坚决拥护观念的多样化。从不同角度得来的各种观念，会让公司更加强大。

《财富》杂志：看到你和玛丽•巴拉这样的女性能平衡好工作和家庭，对下一代女性是很大的鼓舞。你是如何做到的？

茱莉亚•斯泰恩：我从不会说取得了平衡——一切都在于权衡取舍和个人的选择。我很幸运，家庭和通用汽车都给了我很棒的支持。我做这些，是因为我希望自己8岁的儿子在未来几年中能享受到这样的出行便利。这推动着我更努力地工作。知道我打造的未来产品是他可能会用到的，这让我动力十足。他也总是给我很好的建议。

《财富》杂志：这是你将家庭和工作联系起来的小窍门吗？

茱莉亚•斯泰恩：从我的角度来看，这似乎很有效。我的儿子会参加今天的发布会。我把他称作我的首席私人顾问。他有每一款通用的汽车——至少是小模型。他很高兴他的妈妈在汽车公司工作。(财富中文网)

译者：严匡正

审校：任文科

At the beginning of this year, General Motors introduced Maven, a ride-sharing service that operates as a company-within-a-company under the larger GM umbrella. Maven combines three of the auto giant’s existing test programs under a single brand: a city-based service that rents GM GM 1.44% vehicles by the hour or day, a program that gives residents of partner apartment buildings in New York and Chicago access to on-demand vehicles, and a Europe-only (for now) peer-to-peer car-sharing service.

Maven’s 40-person team is lead by Julia Steyn, GM’s head of urban mobility. Formerly GM’s vice president of corporate development and global mergers and acquisitions, and VP of Alcoa’sM&A group before that, Steyn is no stranger to leadership in a high-stakes environment.Fortune caught up with her to talk about Maven, the future of the auto industry, and the ins and outs of managing a group of millennials and ex-Googlers.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

How do you think about Maven?

Julia Steyn: This has been something that I’ve been thinking long and hard about for a while. In September, [Maven] became official, but the work that we’ve been doing dates back several years. Car-sharing is one of the first building blocks of the future of mobility. Our partnership with Lyft is a different building block, where we’re looking even farther into the future and saying okay, some day cars will be autonomous. I see [Maven] as the future of the company.

You see Maven as GM’s future, but some see it as a potential threat to the company’s existing business model. What is your response to the naysayers?

I don’t see it as a threat at all. I think the [automotive] eco-system is evolving and what Maven is doing is giving on-demand mobility services to folks who otherwise wouldn’t have cars. We’re exposing a lot of new faces and younger faces who wouldn’t otherwise have access to our products. It’s not a competition.

Who do you see as your main competitors? Ford, Audi, and BMW are also pushing into in this space, and of, course, there are standalone services like ZipCar.

Right now, I am focusing on competing with myself—trying to push forward in a way that makes sense for our customers. Although there’s furious competition for the future of mobility, to me I see the customer as the center of it all. How can I provide a service that continues to be relevant? How can I evolve with the customer? One of the things I’m really excited about is how in Ann Arbor, we’ll be communicating with customers through our pilot partnership with [mobile messaging service] Whatsapp. Customers can reach me and the other members of the team and we can hear from them directly.

What other ways are you engaging with your customers?

The magic happens when you connect a smartphone app to a car. For a “Mavener,” it’s seamless. You download the app, then you choose the car, and your smartphone actually acts as a key when you enter the vehicle. You get to bring your whole digital life inside. We strongly believe that the car-share experience of the future needs to feel like car ownership. You plug in your phone and immediately you have access to your music, your preferences.

Sounds like a millennial’s dream. Is most of your team made up of millennials? If so, do you find managing them to be as challenging as people say?

Yes, I’d say it is mostly millennials. They push me every day to think of something new and do new things. It’s much more Silicon Valley than what you would imagine of an old-style automotive company. I’m thrilled to attract that kind of talent. We have people from Google, from ZipCar, and now from [recently acquired] SideCar. I don’t really get what the big deal is with managing Millennials. Maybe it’s because I’ve never really grown up. It’s all about people wanting to stay, it’s all about their ideas being heard, all about ideas being generated. At Maven, it’s what we do, so there’s no problem. I don’t see a problem of management, all I see a problem with is prioritizing—there are so many ideas!

Speaking of management, you work under the inimitable Mary Barra, no. 1 on Fortune‘s list ofMost Powerful Women. What’s it like working at a woman-led company?

I think Mary runs this company because she’s ultimately very qualified to run a company—I’ve never focused on her or my gender. Still, if somebody joins GM because they see Mary as CEO and they see other women in positions of power, I’ll be thrilled, because that means that we inspired another generation of young women. That said, I’m a strong believer in the diversity of opinion. The diversity that you have from various angles is making the company stronger. [To read more about gender diversity in the workplace, subscribe to theBroadsheet.]

I think it is inspiring to the next generation of women to see women like you and Mary Barra balance work and family. How do you do it?

I would never say that you achieve balance—it’s all about trade-offs and the personal choices you make. I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve had a wonderful support system both at home and with GM. I’m doing this because I want a future of mobility to fit into what my eight-year-old son’s life will be like in a couple of years and so that motivates me to work even harder at it. It’s such an inspiration to know that I’m building a future for something that he might use, and he himself is always giving me great suggestions.

So is the trick to involve your family in what you do?

In my case it seems to be working. My son is going to come to my launch event today. I call him my chief personal consultant and he has every model of GM vehicle at his disposal—or at least the small versions. He’s totally loving the fact that his mom works in cars.