Billion-dollar idea

I wonder how large a bonus GM's Bob Lutz gave his resident wild man for last year's work.

I'm thinking of the guy who stood up in a product-planning meeting and said, "Ya know, Bob, I bet we could sell that oddball Hummer if we made it look like a shipping container on wheels, painted it yellow and gave it a Jeep grille."

Somehow the idea took wing, and last year GM sold 18,861 Hummer H2 models, plus 720 of the original tank-like creations.

More to the point, the Hummers added nearly $1 billion to GM's sales total. At GM, the guy who brings in a billion in sales is treated with great respect.

Those 19,581 Hummers were sold to delighted dealers who passed them along (at a tidy profit) to equally delighted customers.

Talk about a win-win situation.

Billion-dollar idea

I wonder how large a bonus GM's Bob Lutz gave his resident wild man for last year's work.

I'm thinking of the guy who stood up in a product-planning meeting and said, "Ya know, Bob, I bet we could sell that oddball Hummer if we made it look like a shipping container on wheels, painted it yellow and gave it a Jeep grille."

Somehow the idea took wing, and last year GM sold 18,861 Hummer H2 models, plus 720 of the original tank-like creations.

More to the point, the Hummers added nearly $1 billion to GM's sales total. At GM, the guy who brings in a billion in sales is treated with great respect.

Those 19,581 Hummers were sold to delighted dealers who passed them along (at a tidy profit) to equally delighted customers.

Talk about a win-win situation.