Expertise and Industrial Adaptability to Address the Pandemic: The General Motors Case
Story by Pablo Emiliano de la Rosa
Marcelo Conti- Director of Program Purchasing, GM GPSC Program Management and Mexico Co-chair of GM Latino Network
The global crisis due to COVID-19 forced everyone to contribute their best efforts and resources according to their possibilities. Marcelo Conti's experience as Director of Program Purchasing at General Motors shows us how this crisis has been experienced from within one of the largest companies in the world. Not only did they have to respond with protocols to protect their employees, but they looked for ways to contribute by bringing their industrial engineering knowledge and capabilities work, even manufacturing critical care ventilators. This exemplifies the essential role that large companies can play in helping dealing with global crises that affect all of humanity.
Marcelo Conti’s career began in 1985 as a banker in his native Brazil and he went on to hold roles of increasing responsibilities in Brazil, the US, and the UK across different industries such as automotive, aerospace, oil & gas, power generation and aviation. In 2014 he joined GM as a purchasing director for transmissions and since November 2020 he has been director of program purchasing for Autonomous Vehicles, Battery Electric Vehicles and Internal Combustion Engines-based propulsion systems. Today he also serves as Co-Chair of the leadership advisory board for the GM Latino Network (GMLN), one of the largest employee resource groups in the company.
As part of his responsibilities, Conti was able to participate in GM's efforts to counter the effects of the pandemic. As a company, the first step was to protect its employees. GM published a COVID-19 Employee Guide, which covered protocols for entering the facilities, maskwearing and physical distancing, keeping spaces clean and ventilated, and handling suspected COVID-19 cases. As employees came back to work, GM started holding several webinars with stakeholders to discuss COVID-19 safety protocols. GM senior leadership also made frequent visits to the facilities across the country to walk plant floors and conduct town hall meetings with employees.
One of the first actions was to take advantage of GM resources to produce Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). As COVID-19 spread across the globe, thousands of team members within GM, along with global suppliers, worked to get medical professionals face masks, protective equipment and ventilators. In May 2020, the GM Latino Network hosted several workshops resulting in 92 volunteers making masks. For Conti this experience was extremely enriching: “I had the opportunity to work in the production line making masks during the early stages of the pandemic… The fact that we were all working tirelessly across the whole industry for a greater cause, with an incredible sense of purpose and urgency, was a highlight in my career.”
In addition, GM mobilized facilities in South America in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, to repair ventilators for hospital use, loan fleet vehicles to local nonprofits, and donate time and resources to educational organizations and food banks.
A crucial part of these efforts was the production of ventilators taking advantage of GM's expertise and resources. At the early days of the pandemic, GM and Ventec Life Systems collaborated to scale up production. According to Conti: “Within the first week, GM had engaged its global supply base and had developed plans to source 100% of the necessary parts and crews began preparing our Kokomo, Indiana site for production”. Three weeks later, GM was awarded a contract to deliver 30,000 V+Pro critical care ventilators to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The full federal order was completed in just 154 days, with one ventilator completed about every seven minutes.
The GM case exemplifies the importance of collaboration between companies in times of crisis, providing the skills that make them successful for the benefit of all. Few trades have such a competitive environment as the automotive industry. According to Conti: “That forces us to leverage our engineering, manufacturing, supply management and program management expertise (to cite a few) to do things better, faster, at lower costs. It also pushes us to ‘think on our feet’ and adapt to the ever-changing demands and expectations of our customers.” Beyond its industrial resources, it is these capabilities that GM was able to contribute.
Today GM continues to provide social investments to support COVID-related responses and recovery programs. In 2020, GM directed an additional $3.6 million in grant funding to more than 40 nonprofit organizations across the country to address critical needs, including food security, housing assistance, elderly assistance, small business support and at-home education. Furthermore, GM joined the Ad Council and the COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative to educate the American public about COVID-19 vaccines.
Looking forward, Conti is aware that the pandemic will force the acceleration of changes that were already contemplated within the automotive industry. This crisis has also given rise to many lessons that can be used in the new scenarios: “We have now learned how to be far more adaptable, agile, and even more ambidextrous than before, in that we need to continue working on and improving the technology of today while building an all-electric future.”
Conti shares that Mary Barra, CEO of GM, often says that the “automotive industry will change more in the next five to ten years than it has in the last fifty.” This is now much more evident since the pandemic forced everyone to evolve towards a more efficient way of doing things in all fields. Part of this evolution is exemplified in the GM programs Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion, which according to Conti are in reach “within his lifetime.”
Regarding his Latino origin, Conti considers that diversity is one of the aspects that make this industry more special, attracting talent from different personal, cultural and professional backgrounds. From Conti’s point of view: “In the automotive industry, diversity of thought is not only a question of competitive advantage, but one of survival. An industry that is changing so drastically, and so rapidly, needs diversity of thought in all its forms to thrive.”
In his case, mixing the personal with the professional seems inevitable, it can even be an advantage to carry out his work better: “Being Latino is a big part of who I am. It helped shape the way I think, act and lead, and I believe I am better off for it. And so is the company that I work for, which embraces me for who I am”.
From diversity we can contribute new ideas, creativity and ingenuity to build a better future. Therefore, in Conti’s words: “Always bring your whole self to work and encourage others around you to do the same.”