Reflections

IN 1998 after spending 10 years researching national policy, particularly industrial competitiveness policy, I was shocked when driving past the General Motors (GM) manufacturing plant in Flint, Michigan. Its union workforce was on strike! I asked my wife, "Do these workers know that U.S. auto companies are in the middle of a major competition with Japanese auto companies and they are losing ground?" Unknown to me, Mary Barra, then General Director of Internal Communications at GM, was starting a major communications program at GM manufacturing plants to inform the union workforce of the realities of competition the company was facing.