Question: Case Study 2. Homegrown Talent: Mary Barra Rises to GM's Top Post When Mary Barra was a kid, she used to hang out in the garage with her dad, tinkering on cars. Little did her father, a lifelong die- maker for GM's Pontiac division, know that his daughter would one day become the CEO of the company and the first woman ever to lead a major U.S. car manufacturer. But that's what happened in 2013. Barra was unanimously chosen by the board members of General Motors to lead the company-a decision employees cheered when they the news over the loudspeakers at corporate headquarters. Maybe they cheered because unlike GM's previous two CEOs, Barra was one of them. Having worked in multiple departments at GM since she was 18, she knows the car business through and through. "There's nobody with more years of honest 'car guy' credentials than she has," says Ross Gordon in the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Barra, who grew up in a Detroit suburb, initially began working for GM in the 1980s as part of a work-study program. In this program, which is also referred to as a co-op program, students alternate working full-time (for pay) and going to college. Barra earned an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, and GM later sent her to Stanford University, where she got an MBA. During her career, she has rotated through various positions at GM. Besides working in engineering and design, she managed one GM's manufacturing plants and most recently was the senior vice president for global product development and quality control. Under her watch, the company has rolled out successful models that have helped bring the company back from its bankruptcy during the latest economic recession. Barra has a reputation for getting results. When she took the CEO job in early 2014, she inherited a company that for decades was both large and unwieldy, so much so that executives sometimes didn't know whether parts of the business were making or losing money. She trimmed excess operations to create a more agile organization, improving profitability along the way. Today, Barra is adamant that GM can still grow, but in a different way than in the past—that is, through new businesses built on electric and driverless cars. These are big transformational bets, and Barra is a courageous leader. Sue Meisinger, formerly the president and CEO of the Society of Human Resources Management, says that Barra's being named CEO underscores the importance of HR personnel working in and understanding different areas of their firms. "If you're interested in a career path that extends beyond HR, you need to have experience in multiple facets of the business," Meisinger says. She notes that for many HR professionals, their crowning achievement is to be the head of HR. Barra's rise to CEO, however, will have many of these professionals shifting their career goals. Questions Mary Barra's father worked at General Motors. Was her hiring an example of nepotism? If you were a business owner, would you want to hire relatives of your employees? What are the pros and cons of doing so be? What role did Barra play in advancing her career? What role did GM play in "growing" her career?