Goodbye Saturn, Thanks for the Ride (1985-2010)
Unlike many automotive concepts that come and go every year, Saturn was one that actually came to play. When the company was launched in October 1990, it represented a rare phenomenon in the industry with its unique features, clever marketing, and customer-focused retail stores. Saturn was a surprising success from the beginning.
“Almost overnight, Saturn has become the highest-quality American-made brand, with as few defects as Hondas and Nissans.” But as well as things were going for Saturn at the time, the magazine recognized that its parent company – General Motors – was one of its biggest threats. “The automaker clearly has a winner on its hands,” said BW. “Now, the question is: Will GM know what to do with it?” Unfortunately, the answer was no.
A look at the story of the Saturn Corporation provides some answers. Saturn, a GM company that had great promise in the early 1990s, ultimately failed because senior GM leaders couldn’t see the benefits of new ways of doing things and a new kind of organizational culture. Upper management in the main GM branch had different expectations for the outcome of the Saturn branch.
The basic concepts behind the Saturn Corporation were simple and self-evident: having a team of people who were committed to both their customers’ needs and one another’s success; demanding accountability for results and developing multi-skill flexibility throughout the system so that team members could work and assist others wherever there was a need; treating all stakeholders as partners, because that was exactly what they were. Because of this attitude and variables for success within Saturn’s division, Saturn could compete with the best carmakers in the world.
Saturn Quick Facts:
- Because of an enthusiastic market response to their “different kind of car,” Saturn retailers were chronically short of vehicles for the first five years of production.
- Saturn was the third best-selling car model in the U.S. in 1994. When the production lines switched over to the 1995 models, there were only 400 ’94 Saturns left on lots across the country.
- J.D. Powers consistently rated Saturn as among the top three cars in owner and customer sales satisfaction from 1994 – 2000.
Unfortunately, because of upper management in the main division, Saturn ended up folding under the main GM branch. Saturn’s workers became part of the larger GM workforce in their new locations and subject to new contracts.
The main branch of General Motor’s lack of clear uniform expectations, business effectiveness, success predictability, and overall project management outside of the Saturn branch killed a historical American made car company.
Lessons can be learned from each and every project, even if the project is a failure. In this case, the once monumental Saturn division has crumbled under the lack of variables of success.
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