????“通用汽車不僅在踐行最佳做法，而且還為汽車業未來的召回事件樹立了一個更高的行業標準，實際上，他們正在撰寫一部全新的危機應對手冊，”利維克危機管理公司(Levick)副總裁菲利普?埃爾伍德這樣說道。

????埃爾伍德指出，通用汽車一直在積極致力于清除導致點火開關故障的體制問題——解雇了15位員工，重組訴訟業務流程，并開創了一個名為“為安全發聲(Speaking Up for Safety)”的項目。他認為后者相當于“一種內部舉報人保護法”。

????巴拉一直處于所有這些行動的中心。它們并沒有移交給其他高管來處理，也不是在某個周五下午通過新聞通稿對外發布的。巴拉站在舞臺上，對媒體和公眾詳細解釋她認為通用汽車是如何失敗的，該公司將采取哪些改進措施等問題。她的行動看上去毫無矯飾，也顯示出她為此感到痛心：這家她供職了幾十年的公司竟然允許這種事情發生。

????讓我們比照一下過去十年中另一場重大的公關危機：2010年英國石油公司(BP)墨西哥灣漏油事件。該公司時任CEO唐熙華最初打算降低這起事件的嚴重程度，聲稱這不是什么大不了的事。當然，他最著名的失態之舉是對一位記者說，他想“重回過去的生活”。海沃德隨后遭受鋪天蓋地的指責聲，沒過幾個月就黯然辭職。

????埃爾伍德還表示，巴拉在這場危機襲來之前已經積聚的高人氣，可能對她也很有助益。

????“瑪麗?巴拉在今年1月15日被任命為新任CEO的消息的確令人振奮，”他說。“她由此成為一家美國汽車巨頭的首位女性首席執行官，懸掛在女性高管頭頂的玻璃天花板被悄然粉碎。毫無疑問，此舉給通用汽車打了一劑防疫針。”

????通用汽車的危機還遠遠沒有結束。但如果巴拉延續她的應對策略，她就很有可能被載入史冊，成為一位CEO如何挽狂瀾于既倒，扶大廈之將傾的典型例證。（財富中文網）

????譯者：葉寒

????“GM is not only following best practices, they’re also effectively writing a new book by setting higher industry standards for future recalls by automakers,” said Philip Elwood, a vice-president at crisis management firm Levick.

????Elwood noted that GM has been proactive in working to eliminate the institutional issues that led to the ignition switch issues — firing 15 people, reorganizing the litigation practice and creating the “Speaking Up for Safety” program, which he calls “a sort of internal whistleblower protection act.”

????Barra has been at the center of all of these actions. They weren’t handed off to other executives. They weren’t announced in press releases on a Friday afternoon. Barra got on stage in front of the press and the public and explained exactly how she believes the company failed, and what it was going to do to get better. Her actions never seemed fake, and it was difficult to say she wasn’t legitimately upset that the automaker she has worked at for several decades allowed this to happen.

????Compare that to one of the other big public relations crises of the past decade: the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Then-CEO Tony Hayward started by minimizing the incident, saying it wasn’t a big deal. Of course, his most famous gaffe was saying to a reporter that he would like his “life back.” Hayward was massively criticized, and was out of the company within a matter of months.

????Elwood also said that the popularity Barra had before the crisis hit has probably helped her.

????“The announcement of Mary Barra as the new CEO on Jan. 15 of this year was done in spectacular fashion,” he said. “The unspoken shattering of the glass ceiling, as the first female CEO of a U.S. auto giant, surely gave GM some preemptive inoculation.”

????The crisis at GM is far from over. But if Barra keeps playing her cards the way she has so far, she could be held up for years as a textbook example of how a CEO should handle a potentially fatal crisis.