GM's "Future Leaders": Jeffrey Kimpan
By Michelle Krebs September 17, 2008By Dale Buss
From his first job as a summer intern turning copper ingots into wire at a Packard Electric plant in Warren, Ohio, to his new post as vice president of human resources for the company's entire Asia-Pacific region, Jeffrey Kimpan has learned about as much as anyone could about General Motors and its people.
And along the way, a few of those people became instrumental in furthering his own career. "My whole career, I had leaders who were very supportive and not intimidated by me and had interest in letting me do whatever I wanted to do -- as long as I did it well," said the 56-year-old native of Sharon, Pennsylvania.
In turn, Kimpan applied lessons learned from these mentors to how he has treated talent development in his posts around the world. "Don't restrain your thinking as you start developing local talent," he said. "You need to give them the support they require. And you'll find that people are capable of doing more than you think."
Comprehending China
Kimpan headed HR in China for more than two years before being asked in January to take on similar responsibilities for GM's entire Asia-Pacific region.
In China, the necessity to help talent take root quickly and reliably has intensified because of the explosive growth of the marketplace -- and, in GM's case in particular, the extent to which the company is depending on its Chinese employees to make global contributions.
"The thing that is so disruptive here, as we're developing people to take on more, is that the growth is at a pace that could outstrip their readiness," he said. "If it just slowed down and took a breath, we could prepare a bunch of people for roles. But at [growth of] 10 to 11 percent a year, you're just running flat out. At that pace, there are limits to how fast you can go.
"Plus, these people become very desirable in the marketplace, and you also have to make sure you don't lose key people."
Kimpan's approach begins with a "competitive pay and benefits scheme," he said. "If you get out of whack there, you find that out pretty quickly."
He also has discovered GM and its brand hold a decided appeal to the Chinese, even as indigenous companies are absolutely exploding with their own growth. "People want to be affiliated with GM and the auto industry; it's the exciting place to be and work," he said. "As these other companies come on, there are opportunities there for our people -- but they seem to be at more junior levels. People can take that experience and leverage it into a larger job and title somewhere else.
"But folks at the top end are more wedded to GM and to the opportunities here. Those are difficult to replace just by going to a smaller company and starting out, with nameplates that may not be as established in the market."
The proof? Turnover is running at about a 13 percent average in the Chinese market as a whole, Kimpan said, "and we're doing less than that."
Never Left HR
As China and much of the rest of the Asia-Pacific region continues to burgeon, Kimpan said, it "seems like a duplication of what we went through in the United States in our best years -- it just goes a lot quicker. You don't have time to analyze and make decisions and make sure everyone is comfortable with it because by the time you do, that person -- or that issue-- is gone. And you could get left behind."
Kimpan's early experiences at Packard Electric led him to look toward a senior manufacturing-management role with GM. But after working as a front-line supervisor for a couple of years, he recalled, "I took a job as a labor-relations rep. And I liked working with unions and solving problems." So he turned down an opportunity for a promotion to general foreman and stayed in HR for what has turned out to be the balance of his career.
In 1982, Kimpan went to lead HR and labor relations for Packard in Mexico, which was undergoing a period of explosive growth. "Every day, picking a new location or meeting with the government, we were building a team or taking a chance," he remembered. "It was a ball."
After being selected by GM to attend Stanford University on a Sloan Fellowship, and earning an advanced degree through it, Kimpan moved to Detroit with Delphi. In the mid-'90s, he moved on to head HR and labor relations for GM's Latin America, Africa and Middle East division, which was headquartered in Miami.
Then, Kimpan moved back to Detroit to take on global HR responsibility for manufacturing, supporting production chief Gary Cowger. When his predecessor at HR in China left the company a couple of years ago, "there really wasn't a logical heir apparent," Kimpan said.
Comparison With Mexico
And so at a time when many automotive executives have early retirement on their minds, instead, Kimpan took the job in China, "offering to come relying on the experience I had in Mexico when it was going through so much growth."
He has found GM's HR situation in China "a lot more complicated" than in Mexico. In the latter market, he said, "You're chasing labor costs in the maquillas -- it's straight-line, high attrition, lots of hiring and craziness in a market where salaries went up very quickly.
"But in China -- while labor costs are one of the things that appeal to us -- we're coming here because we have to be here if we're going to be in the automotive game. So there is complexity here that we never saw in Mexico. There, it was: build plants, fill them up, and get volume. Here, it's partner complications, relationships with government. And the competition is much more keen because every [automaker] is here.
"It's a lot more complicated. But it's a lot more fun."
With his responsibilities recently expanded beyond China, Kimpan also has to understand human-capital dynamics in many more markets. But he readily embraces the new challenges.
"What turns me on and rejuvenates me," he said, "is if I can get the right people placed and developed in jobs, and you see the results of that for years to come. That's what I find enthusing. That's why I came here."
Jeffrey Kimpan
Title: Vice President, Human Resources, GM Asia-Pacific
Location: GM Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai
Age: 56
Born: United States
Personal: Married with two grown children.
Spare-time pursuits: Traveling within the region and enjoying the couple's two Rottweilers. "We live in a neighborhood of expats, and my wife has converted the security and maintenance people to the view that Rottweilers are nice dogs."
Business heroes: They include Sloan Fellowship classmates Bill Amelio, now CEO of Lenovoa, and Tom Falk, now CEO of Kimberly-Clark. "When he was [at Sloan] Falk was a hot-shot accountant who was being fast-tracked by Kimberly-Clark. He is a terrific guy who has that set of business analytical skills but also matched with some terrific people skills. I always look to the way he handles things."
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