Jerome York is a great businessman to study. He was involved in some really fascinating turnarounds. After all, most businesses run into a few bumps along the w

Jerome York is a great businessman to study. He was involved in some really fascinating turnarounds. After all, most businesses run into a few bumps along the way. I think one of the more interesting ones was with GM, in 2006. Kirk Kerkorian had taken a stake in GM and asked York to be his advisor on the situation. York gave GM some frank news: they needed to be put into crisis mode, sell off Saab and Hummer, cut their dividend, and adopt meaningful restructuring goals a la Carlos Ghosn at Nissan. Now -- GM rejected practically all of these. They bought out some employees, yes. But they kept Hummer and Saab, when they should have sold them at peak earnings. Now they are trying to sell them at trough earnings to no avail. The dividend was kept in place and as a result, cash exited the business when it could have been used to pay down on debt. Then, on July 10, 2009, General Motors filed for bankruptcy.