Mary Barra's first year on the job as the first woman ever to lead a global automaker was about as rough as a CEO’s first year can be. Barra, a General Motors lifer, took the helm at GM in January 2014. Just a few weeks into the gig, she found herself navigating a catastrophic recall of millions of GM-made cars due to faulty ignition switches, some of which had caused fatal accidents. Barra spent much of her debut year on Capitol Hill, testifying in front of lawmakers who grilled her about why the defects had gone unfixed for so long.
It was the kind of experience that might make you want to quit before year two—but this January, Barra celebrated year 10. Leading the company through the recall crisis gave her momentum to reform GM’s culture and reorganize it to prepare for an electric-vehicle revolution; it also helped her earn the No. 1 position on our MPW list from 2015 through 2017. Since then, she’s led GM to its strongest financial position since its 2009 bankruptcy, when the government was compelled to provide the automaker a financial lifeline. And this year, she reclaims our top spot.
Along the way, Barra joined an elite group. Hitting the decade mark is a rarity for any public company CEO, and even more so for female leaders: The average tenure of a Fortune 500 CEO is 7.2 years for men and just 4.5 years for women. Among the 55 women who currently lead Fortune 500 companies, Barra is one of only nine who have been CEO for a decade or more.
To earn longevity, of course, you have to deliver results. GM brought in $171.8 billion last year, a nearly 10% increase year over year, and its best performance in 17 years. Late last year it reached an agreement with the United Auto Workers that ended contentious contract negotiations and a costly, historic strike. Even with the strike’s drag on productivity, GM raked in profits of $10.1 billion, and its stock is up nearly 35% so far in 2024—a testament to Barra’s leadership.
That said, Barra’s biggest mark on the company remains, well, a question mark. The CEO has committed GM to the ambitious goal of going all-electric by 2035—and its efforts have sputtered a bit of late. (The company recently backed away from a previous target of having the capacity to produce 1 million EVs in North America by 2025; it delivered only 38,355 EVs in the region in the first half of 2024.) GM has also run into challenges in autonomous vehicle development, another priority of Barra’s. Its self-driving subsidiary, Cruise, had to pause operations after one of its vehicles was involved in a serious accident with a pedestrian in San Francisco in late 2023; Cruise only recently resumed its robo-taxi efforts.
But as Barra says herself, transformation is not a straight line. The CEO remains committed to her stated goal of zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion. It just might take a while to get there. Fortune caught up with Barra—interviewing her while she was in a car, naturally—to ask about the last 10 years, today’s challenges, and the road ahead.
What’s the secret to your longevity?
Part of it is having a great team. But also it’s being agile and continuing to understand how the environment is changing, not waiting and letting things happen to you, but being proactive. You know, when I took this role, we were still a company in transition and moving toward becoming a modern company in an industry that was transforming, and frankly, that transformation has only accelerated over this 10-year period. I would also say that I have a really wonderful board, and I leverage my board and really get their best thinking.
You came into the CEO role at a tough time in the company’s trajectory. How did that first year inform your leadership?
[The crisis] was an opportunity to demonstrate that we’re going to do the right thing for our customers, be transparent, and do everything in our power to make sure this doesn’t happen again. We lived the values. We put policies in place saying we want people to speak up—if you see an issue, you need to say something. I always say to employees that the best time to solve a problem is the minute you know you have one. Because problems don’t usually get smaller, they get bigger.
One of the things you said back then is that you didn’t want the company to forget, to put the past behind it. How do you do that today, especially with newer employees?
It’s interesting that we’re talking this week, because this is our Global Safety Week, which we have once a year. And often I say we never want to forget because 40% of our technical talent and most of our salaried employees have only been with the company for five years or less. So we need to make sure they understand the importance of and commitment to safety. It’s not just once a year and done, but once a year we really bring it to a head.
Your first year is pretty easy to define: You had to focus on righting the ship. How do you think about your subsequent years as CEO, going into this current era?
Well, when we got to 2015 it was very clear to us that the industry was changing. It was changing in the way vehicles were propelled, and the information in the vehicle—the fact that at the heart of the vehicle, there’s so much software and there’s so much you can do with it. And of course autonomy. As a leadership team, together with our board, we decided we’re not going to wait to be disrupted. We’re going to transform.
So, in 2018 we started working on a global EV production platform that would allow us to do something as small as an Equinox all the way up to a supertruck like a Hummer or a delivery van like the Chevrolet BrightDrop. We purchased Cruise, but also started intense efforts in working on our autonomous software, which continues to be heralded as one of the best driver-assistance technologies. Then every year we just continue to adjust the strategy and look at: How do we go through this transformation?
Internally, how do you speak about and view the current slowdown
in the growth of demand for EVs?
Well, we never thought this would be a straight line, a linear transformation. There’s 283 million vehicles in the U.S. alone, so it’s going to take a while to change them out. I’m very proud of all of our work getting more affordable vehicles out there.
The best time to solve a problem is the minute you know you have one. Because problems don’t usually get smaller.
Once people feel like they can afford the vehicle, and they don’t have range anxiety, the next thing is [charging-station] anxiety, and so we’ve been working on charging. Frankly, I think [progress with] charging has happened a little slow, but every quarter it gets better.
I’ve always said that the customer is extremely rational. This is a very expensive purchase. It’s also a bit of a fashion statement. Why do people pick their cars? It’s an integral part of their lives. Many of our customers still name their vehicles. So they want it to be there for them when they need it.
Is it easier to transform during a time of crisis or one of comfort?
The foundational thing, I think, is our behaviors. Early on, when people were writing about General Motors’ culture, and how it’s a problem, I asked myself, “What is a culture?” It’s a collection of stories of the way people feel every day. Do they come home every day and say, “I had a great day working on this; I’m really excited and getting the resources I need”? Or do they say, “I’m completely frustrated. I’m trying to do this really cool thing, and I can’t get it done for all kinds of other reasons?"
Focusing on behaviors is something that we consistently pushed for, and we continue to work on: How do we really demonstrate behaviors that are going to allow our people to do their best work and feel valued? I think that’s a common element.
One last question for you: What are you driving these days?
That’s one of the best parts of my job, because I drive so many different things, but right now I have a Hummer SUV [electric version]. I love the four-wheel steer of the vehicle; I love sitting up high. I’ve also got an internal-combustion engine Blazer that I spend time in. But the Hummer SUV is the main one I’m driving now. I think it’s pretty cool.
Can I guess what color it is?
It’s black.
This article appears in the October/November 2024 issue of Fortune with the headline, "Mary Barra: The CEO of General Motors accelerates into our top spot."
