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 DETROIT (AP) - General Motors Corp., struggling with weak U.S. sales, tough competition and tepid earnings prospects, put day-to-day authority over its North American operations in the hands of chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner on Monday in hopes he can engineer a turnaround. But some say the world's biggest automaker needs a more radical overhaul if it wants to boost sales and profit.
"This is like moving around chairs on the deck of the Titanic," said industry observer Peter Morici, an economist and business professor at the University of Maryland. "Until we get a management with the stomach to address GM's fundamental structural problems, there is no reason for stockholders to take comfort."
Wagoner will take over daily responsibility of the automaker's struggling North American division. GM North America's chairman Bob Lutz and GMNA President Gary Cowger are relinquishing those roles to focus full-time on global product development and global manufacturing and labor, respectively, GM said.
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