GM cracks open the door
A few days after I lamented the fact that so few Fortune 500 CEOs were blogging, Steve Rubel highlights a new blog at General Motors where it appears many GM Employees can blog:
The FYI Blog is about GM news and opinion, by GM employees and others. We look forward to hearing your ideas.
At first glance, the site appears to be predominantly written by more senior staff members at General Motors, such as this post by Sharon Morton from GM Communications:
We are the largest direct, corporate user of landfill gas in the United States. Landfill gas is generated by rotting garbage in landfills. Our decision to use it as an energy source is a win-win situation. It’€™s good for the environment and also is a good business decision.
I would characterize GM’s FYI Blogs as nothing more than a good start at this point. There’s much opportunity for blog posts here that are authentic and help “keep it real”, so to speak. Many of these posts still read like marketing literature…
What I really want to hear / read online is the voice of GM – the company is facing a serious financial and labor crisis with their losses in recent months – let’s hear someone talk honestly about that.
If I were a GM Employee right now, I would be worried as hell about the future of my corporation. And that’s what I’d be blogging about on my personal blog – so why not someone from GM’s Human Resources group talking about how they’re working to keep their best employees onboard – and how they’re handling morale. There’s probably some lessons to be learned about crisis management in their current situation as well.
There’s an opportunity being missed here – but I applaud GM for taking the first step towards more openness through blogging.
