GM and Perot

The Big 3 Automakers are in the news, asking for money, and I’m reminded of the time in the 1980’s when Ross Perot was on the Board of General Motors. Perot was not kind in his criticism of GM.
The only quote I remember was (roughly): “At my old company, if somebody saw a snake, he killed it. At GM, if somebody sees a snake, they send a memo around to all departments, requesting recommendations for a team of worldwide experts to make a series of recommendations about what to do with the snake.”

The background. Back when there were only huge mainframe computers, Ross Perot founded Electronic Data Services (EDS) to give access to computers to companies that coundn’t afford to buy their own computers. At that point, only the very largest companies could afford a computer. In the 70’s, mini computers cut into EDS’s market. And when PCs came out, EDS was basically obsolete. So Perot sold EDS to General Motors. As part of the deal, Perot got a seat on the GM board. He had managed a large company, and he was scandalized at the GM was managed. So he denounced GM at every opportunity. Finally, the management gave him a multi-million dollar buyout.
Typically, Perot criticized GM for the buyout saying (roughly): “This is silly, they are spending millions to shut me up. They should have used the millions to make better cars”