I think that more than a lack of innovation, the source of GM’s problem is really 2 fold:

1. they produce too many vehicle models, and their brand is extremely watered down because of this.

2. they cut corners constantly in an effort to watch the bottom line. the company is never willing to take a loss in order to innovate. they dont see the big picture, just the next 12 months of profit or loss. this has to change immediately.

What we don’t see coming from GM is consistency of quality and design, and in my mind this is a result of an ongoing effort to cut corners (costs) in the name of protecting the bottom line. Case in point is the Toyota Prius. Toyota knew that they would initially lose money on this design, but they produced it anyway and thought long term over short term bottom line. GM needs to adopt this approach and overbuild some of its cars at near zero profit (or even at a loss) in order to win back the market. This is not possible though unless they close at least 50 percent of their plants, and cut their lineup to a maximum of 10-15 vehicles. Right now they probably have 40 different models, and there absolutely no way they can control quality and costs with that much diversity. The brand is as watered down as the number of models they produce.

2 sports cars, 3 sedans, 2 trucks, 3 suvs. 1 minivan. any more than this and there really is no way for this company to control quality and build cars that have a memorable legacy. Off the top my adice would be to close Saturn and Buick immediately. These brands have zero cache and zero emotional brand recognition with the consumer. Focus only on Chevrolet, GMC, and Cadillac. Those are brands that have
some chance to be recovered.

America is all about bigger is better, and we are quickly learning that this is not a model for success. Companies like Apple and Google have shown us that if you concentrate your efforts on just a handful of products that work exceptionally well, that you can have massive success and tremendous brand recognition.