EXPERTS ADVISORY

ANN ARBOR—University of Michigan faculty can share their views on the ongoing developments in General Motors’ recall involving 29 million vehicles worldwide so far this year. They include:

Erik Gordon is a professor of business and law. His areas of interest include entrepreneurship, venture capital, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and the biomedical, IT and digital marketing industries. Reach him at (734) 764-5274 or [email protected].

Gordon said: “GM is recalling more cars this year than in nearly a decade because it failed to recall cars it should have during those years. And it also wants to flush out as many of its mistakes as it can so its story of ‘a new GM’ doesn’t get shot to pieces by recalls next year.”

Bruce Belzowski is director of automotive analysis at U-M’s Transportation Research Institute. His research focuses on automotive topics including product development, manufacturer-supplier-dealer relations, globalization, information technology and human resources. Reach him at (734) 255-6274 or [email protected].

Belzowski said: “This is indeed an historic time in terms of safety recalls and they aren’t limited to GM. Chrysler is recalling vehicles for ignition issues and Nissan, Honda, and Toyota are recalling millions of vehicles globally for an airbag issue. The challenge for companies is not reputation, but the cost of all of these recalls. One can’t help but think that somewhere along the way companies will have to set aside more money for recalls, and pass some of these costs on to customers in the form of vehicle price increases.”

Gerald Meyers is a well known industrialist, author, speaker, former chairman of American Motors, active business consultant, and an expert in the field of corporate governance and crisis management. He’s an adjunct professor of organizational behavior at the Ross School. He can be reached at (248) 320-3237 or [email protected].

Meyers said: “The mystery is why GM sales are doing very well in spite of all of the bad news surrounding the giant recall. It really is no mystery at all. The vehicles are almost all of prior vintage. This is a marvelous opportunity for GM to contact these former, and mostly loyal, customers reminding them that there is a new and better product available today. The quality ratings lately are among the best in the industry. A great reason to buy now. This is apparently why sales are showing continuing improvement in spite of the recall.”