GM Know-Nothing Chiefs Buck Post-Tylenol Crisis Standard - Bloomberg

GM Know-Nothing Chiefs Buck Post-Tylenol Crisis Standard - Bloomberg: "When the late Robert Pritzker ran Marmon Group LLC, his family’s conglomerate, he gave the managers of its major units his phone number.

“He said, ‘If anything happens to imperil life, you call me, and you tell them to find me wherever I am,’” said Jim Schrager, a professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, who worked at Marmon in the 1980s and dialed the number himself once, in the middle of the night."



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Other People's Money Never jingled so sweetly... Extraordinary Gross Compensation

Millions by millions, CEO pay goes up: "When it comes to executive pay, 2013 could be one for the record books, with 15 CEOs and other key members of publicly held companies gaining membership into the $100 million-plus compensation club, likely the most since before the 2008 financial crisis."



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Mary Barra Knows Nothing About Anything - Bloomberg View

Mary Barra Knows Nothing About Anything - Bloomberg View: "Although representatives from both houses showed deep frustration at Barra's "name, rank and serial number" approach to their questions, the hearings clearly yielded important evidence ... most notably that of Barra's reticence itself. Her experience within GM, her credentials as a "car gal," were heavily emphasized by GM's public-relations experts in the months leading up to the recall announcement. Now, just when her deep knowledge of GM might have been a huge asset, she acted as if she wore blinders for the last 30 years. Considering Barra is just the latest in a long line of GM CEOs who have noisily touted their "turnarounds" of the automaker, this was not a reassuring development."

But Barra's lack of answers was not entirely surprising. Within the broader cultural issues surrounding GM's approach to consumer safety and accountability lie two very specific quality control problems that fundamentally undercut her ability to reassure customers. First, GM took delivery of a part that was not up to its specifications, and second, changes to that part were not accompanied by changes to the part number. Between these two fundamental breaches of basic quality management, it's not clear how GM can reliably assure anyone of anything. The fact that Barra couldn't answer congressional questions is every bit as terrifying to consumers as if she had pleaded the Fifth Amendment.



Barra's defense has been twofold: That the ignition switch situation is "extraordinary"; and that it was the product of the Old GM's "cost-culture." The ignition problem may indeed prove to be "extraordinary," but Barra can hardly know that with any certainty, given that she doesn't seem to know how basic quality control was circumvented in the ignition switch case. For all she (or anyone else) knows, there could be many more of these problems lurking in the vastness of GM. Insisting she knows for a certainty that the ignition defect was "extraordinary" does not help her credibility...

Fruitful veggies

How many portions of fruit and vegetables are we eating? | News | theguardian.com: "The study found that people who ate seven or more portions of fruit or vegetables a day had a 33% reduced risk of death from any cause, a 25% reduced risk of death from cancer and a 31% reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease, compared with people who ate less than one portion per day (a portion is defined as 80 grams). Researchers adjusted their analysis for sex, age, cigarette smoking, social class, Body Mass Index, education, physical activity and alcohol intake

They also found that vegetables may lower risk more than fruit and that eating frozen or canned fruit was associated with an increased risk of death.

The five a day mantra, as the NHS explain in their Behind the Headline analysis, has always referred to the the minimum recommended level they advise. Or as they put it:

When it comes to fruit and vegetables, as long as you watch your calorie and sugar intake it is very much the case of “the more the merrier”"



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