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“We’ve gained extremely valuable insights from operating our own car-sharing business,” Pamela Fletcher, GM’s vice president of global innovation, said in a sta

“We’ve gained extremely valuable insights from operating our own car-sharing business,” Pamela Fletcher, GM’s vice president of global innovation, said in a statement. “Our learnings and developments from Maven will go on to benefit and accelerate the growth of other areas of GM business.” What a load of bullshit, just say the business failed and you shut it down. This is another example of the post-truth world where anyone can say whatever they want even if it's stupid and wrong. Startups that fail didn't have a wonderful journey, products that fail don't give valuable insight into entirely different lines of business (well, they might give some insight), and an executive that leaves after 2 months isn't a good sign no matter how they twist it.

pm90 7y ago
The ability to spin the disaster as something positive is exactly why this person is a VP at GM. This kind of skill is necessary but not sufficient to be an executive.
- achillesheels 7y ago
  Let’s please not generalize here. One does not need to deceive in order to be an executive. And we must make a moral example out of organizations and societies where this is considered necessary for profit.
  - maxlamb 6y ago
    Technically she did not deceive though. If you read what she said everything is truthful.
ajobforme 7y ago
they own cruise, which will open its own car-sharing platform in the future. Seems directly related to me.
- ghaff 7y ago
  Generalized door-to-door self-driving is decades away. And when it's here, the average person isn't going to be renting out their car. If the economics work, cars will come from centralized rental services like... ZipCar. Maybe car manufacturers will decide they want to rent cars directly but they could today and don't.
covidacct 7y ago
OT, but does anyone know where the "learnings" phrase in corporatese come from? I noticed it five or six years ago and now it's everywhere. The first time I heard it was from a German VP and I assumed it was some sort of odd transliteration or maybe a Borat reference, but that hypothesis is obviously invalidated.
- tlb 7y ago
  I've heard it occasionally for a long time, but not much in the startup world. It's a word you reach for when you've burned through millions of dollars and someone asks, "What do we have to show for it?" "Learnings."

pm90 7y ago

The ability to spin the disaster as something positive is exactly why this person is a VP at GM. This kind of skill is necessary but not sufficient to be an executive.

achillesheels 7y ago
Let’s please not generalize here. One does not need to deceive in order to be an executive. And we must make a moral example out of organizations and societies where this is considered necessary for profit.
- maxlamb 6y ago
  Technically she did not deceive though. If you read what she said everything is truthful.

ajobforme 7y ago

they own cruise, which will open its own car-sharing platform in the future. Seems directly related to me.

ghaff 7y ago
Generalized door-to-door self-driving is decades away. And when it's here, the average person isn't going to be renting out their car. If the economics work, cars will come from centralized rental services like... ZipCar. Maybe car manufacturers will decide they want to rent cars directly but they could today and don't.

covidacct 7y ago

OT, but does anyone know where the "learnings" phrase in corporatese come from? I noticed it five or six years ago and now it's everywhere. The first time I heard it was from a German VP and I assumed it was some sort of odd transliteration or maybe a Borat reference, but that hypothesis is obviously invalidated.

tlb 7y ago
I've heard it occasionally for a long time, but not much in the startup world. It's a word you reach for when you've burned through millions of dollars and someone asks, "What do we have to show for it?" "Learnings."