To maximize its profits, the company has spent the last few years working to significantly unify what were once very independent foreign operations, interlinking product planning, development, purchasing and production, GM officials say.
That's created a team in which designers in Australia report to executives in Detroit, and purchasers in Poland negotiate prices for parts bought all over the world.
It's a path also followed by Ford Motor Co., which, like GM, has seen huge international growth in recent years. And it's a strategy that international rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. have refined for decades.
Such a globally-minded approach, said Rebecca Lindland, auto analyst with IHS Global Insight, carries a significant risk: Disruptions in one market can spell problems throughout the GM world.
"If you're sick in your arm, your whole body is suffering," Lindland said.
Today, GM's immensely complicated worldwide operations work in concert. The Pontiac G8 for sale in Van Nuys was designed in Australia, and Mexican executives can rise to high leadership positions in Detroit.
To reach the top of the corporate food chain, Wagoner logged more than a decade outside the U.S., working for GM in Brazil, Canada and Switzerland.
In Bogota, Colombia, GM operates an enormous 3-million-square-foot factory employing 3,100 workers who assemble up to 75,000 cars a year. Many of the cars put together there are partially built by GM subsidiary Daewoo in Korea and shipped over for final assembly.
The president of GM's Colombia unit, Santiago Chamorro, worries that news of problems in the U.S. could scare away car buyers in South America. "Bankruptcy is not in the interests of our employees, shareholders, suppliers or clients," he said.
To stave off a collapse, GM last week proposed selling off brands, reducing production and eliminating tens of thousands of jobs. And although its foreign picture is brighter, it's not immune from global economic slowdown.
GM laid off 1,000 workers in South Africa this year, said spokesman Pat Morrissey, and idled production for several weeks in Brazil and Argentina. In Russia, sales of Chevrolets were up 32% through October but have fallen of late, while overall industry sales in China fell 10% last month compared with a year earlier.
