Squawk Pod Leaders Playbook: Inside General Motors 2/4/26
Feb 4, 2026
Mary Barra, Chair and CEO of General Motors, an engineer-turned-CEO steering GM through electrification and autonomy. She discusses factory-floor roots, handling major recalls with transparency, pandemic-era manufacturing pivots, chip shortage strategies, flexible EV production, recruiting software talent, robotics in factories, and de-risking long-term bets like autonomy.
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From Line Worker To CEO
- Mary Barra started at GM at 18 working on the factory floor measuring panel gaps and rose through roles from executive assistant to CEO.
- Her long company tenure gave her deep operational knowledge that shaped her leadership style.
Solve Problems Immediately
- When you discover a problem, assemble a cross-functional team and review facts daily until resolved.
- Be transparent, support customers, and commit to preventing recurrence.
Culture Enables Or Prevents Failures
- Investigations showed the ignition switch issue passed through many hands without escalation to top leadership.
- Cultural practices that allow such failures must be identified and eliminated.