Business as usual is over at General Motors. The new GM emerged from bankruptcy after 40 days today promising new products and technologies, new ways of working and even new ways of buying its cars on eBay.

Less than three hours after US government and GM officials signed documents completing the sale of the company’s good assets to a new, Fritz Henderson, the carmaker’s President and chief executive, said he was determined to bring about a profound culture change in the way the company was run.

GM’s U.S. employee base will decline from about 91,000 at the end of 2008 to about 64,000 at the end of this year. It will continue consolidating its dealerships, from 6,000 this spring to approximately 3,600 by the end of next year. Even so, GM will still have the largest dealer network in the U.S.

At a packed press conference in Detroit attended by GM’s newly appointed chairman Edward E. Whitacre, who oversaw the creation of the new AT&T, Mr Henderson announced a flatter organisational structure, stripping out layers of management and shedding 35 per cent of the company’s salaried executives.

To speed up day-to-day decision making, bring management closer to its customers and dealers, the new GM is eliminating its regional operating structure and replacing its two senior leadership forums with a single, smaller executive committee that will meet weekly.

Acknowledging that "the culture at GM has been an impediment to change", Mr Henderson said that he and other senior managers would go on the road every month to meet suppliers, customers, employees and dealers.

"Beginning next week, we will launch a 'Tell Fritz' website where customers, or anyone else, can share ideas, concerns, and suggestions directly with senior management. I will personally review and respond to some of these communications every day," he promised.

Although still private, the company would provide regular public updates on its progress through recovery, he added. The company is still planning to go public some time in 2010.

Referring to the company’s breakneck transformation – it completed bankruptcy proceedings in a record 40 days, 20 days early – Mr Henderson said: "Today, we take the intensity, decisiveness and speed of the past several months and transfer it from the triage of the bankruptcy process to the creation and operation of a new General Motors."

Customers, cars and culture would be the company’s three priorities, he said.

As part of its reinvention, the new GM will retain just four brands - Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. By 2010 it will slim down its product range from 48 to 34, enabling the company to put more resources into each model.

The company is also working on new ways of selling its cars, including a partnership with eBay in California to enable people to bid for vehicles online.

"Customers will be able to bid on actual vehicles just like they do in an eBay auction, including the option of choosing a predetermined 'buy it now' price. We'll be testing this and other ideas with our dealers over the next few weeks, and hope to expand and build upon them in the coming months," Mr Henderson said.

He added that he wants the new GM to move aggressively to develop a full range of energy-saving technologies and to become a world leader in advanced battery development. The company’s first extended-range electric vehicle, the Chevy Volt, is currently undergoing road testing and scheduled to launch in 2010.

Last month, GM announced its intention to build a new small fuel-efficient car at a plant in Orion Township, Michigan, which will restore approximately 1,400 jobs.

Mr Henderson said that negotiations with the Canadian components maker, Magna, over the sale of GM Europe, which includes Britain’s Vauxhall, were continuing. However, he said the company was also talking to RHJ International, a Brussels-based holding company and was still considering an offer from Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation.

The new GM, which is 60 per cent owned by the US government, will begin with a much stronger balance sheet, including U.S. debt of approximately $11 billion, plus preferred stock of $9 billion. In total, obligations have been reduced by more than $40 billion, representing mostly unsecured debt and the trust fund that provides medical benefits to United Auto Workers retirees.

Thanking the US government and taxpayer for their support, Mr Henderson said the company hoped to pay back its government loans "much sooner" than the 2015 deadline. He hoped to see positive operating cash flow by 2011, partly on the back of increased fleet orders, now that uncertainty surrounding the bankruptcy process is over.

GM’s big challenge now, will be to persuade the American public to start buying its cars again. "There’s a lot of PR and marketing that needs to take place," Erich Merkle, an independent auto analyst based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, said. "Once you go into bankruptcy, it doesn’t necessarily help change the perception of the company in the minds of the consumer."

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