General Motors recently announced that it had disbanded its High Performance Vehicle Operations (HPVO) team. This is more of the same thinking that has essentially bankrupted them. The thinking: the government wants GM to focus on fuel efficiency, not performance, rendering HPVO a political liability. Disbanding HPVO is flawed on two levels.

First off, gas is back under $2/gallon, and even if it wasn’t many of HPVO’s products were reasonably fuel efficient. The 260-horsepower Cobalt SS was rated for 22 MPG city, 30 MPG highway. Supposedly, the first order of business is making GM profitable. Well, killing profitable products in pursuit of a greener image won’t help achieve this goal.

But even if there was no longer a market for high-performance vehicles, disbanding this team was a mistake. What many people outside and (especially)inside GM fail to realize is that interpersonal relationships are just as necessary, and harder to develop, than individual talent for developing great cars. I wrote a Ph.D. thesis on this topic. Why? Because talent can only realize its potential when other people recognize this talent, and listen to it. Without great teams, any talent that is present tends to get frustrated.

Judging from its products, HPVO was an effective team. No need for high-performance cars at the moment? Then have this team work on something that is needed. Don’t disband it.