Sumit, a 24-year-old IT engineer from Noida, was barely out of the hangover from the extended celebrations he had for the past two months, only to get a shock in a headline popping on his social media wall which read “GM to stop selling cars in India .”Sumit had bought a Chevrolet Beat, (Chevrolet is the brand that GM had in India) from the money he saved in the last one and a half years of beginning his job to pay a part of the cost for one of his most prized possessions so far.Now he is clueless about what he should do with his car; the biggest fear for him is the looming trouble in the form of service and re-sales value.For Sumit, probably, it would not have been easy to read into the future of the American car company which retained pole position as largest carmaker globally for 77 years till 2008 when recession pushed GM to the brink of bankruptcy.But for a prominent automobile retailer with over three generations in the business in NCR region it was no less a surprise. The anguished dealer who did not want to be named also failed to read the writing on the wall. The dealer who also has few other brands including luxury marquee says “we were left in the dark” and no actual information was given to us.His charge does have mettle, as just a month before the announcement of ceasing its sales in India, on April 18, General Motors sent an invitation to its retail partner for the launch of the re-fresh model of its compact hatchback Beat in July.“We have been given hope in various forms, first they announced a $1 billion investment in India and then it was shelved. Again another announcement came about 10 new products by 2020. So, we were hopeful of revival,” the dealer principal said on anonymity.Currently, GM has over 100 such dealers (120 total outlets) who are clueless about their future and over 5 lakh vehicle owners like Sumit who must struggle to find ways to resolve the trouble.To make things look normal, as late as May 12, a letter signed by Hardeep Brar, Vice President- Sales and Network informed the dealer partners that there will not be any support provided to them.“note that there will not be any additional support will be given on vehicles in dealer stock as on 1st July, in case of any change in Tax rate because of GST . Hence, you are suggested to plan your wholesales accordingly,” the letter read.Since May 18, the day when the official confirmation from GM’s winding up sales in India came in I had never experienced such umpteen emotions - commotion, shock, confusion, helplessness and betrayal in my interaction for a story in the last close to a decade-long career in journalism.ETAuto wrote to the GM India President and MD, Kaher Kazem for more details, however it has been over 48 hours that our e-mail has remained unanswered.Some experts suggest that dealers were tricked into staying with GM by offering incentives and lucrative offers time and again despite the shrinking sales.In each interaction, what comes most prominently is the fear and gloom. None of the dealers wanted to be named but had been vociferously vocal on expressing their dismay even in the ways they have been treated post the event. According to the dealers ETAuto contacted across India, what is adding to the pangs is the minimal transparency and lack of adequate communication post announcements.“Even last month we were assured that General Motors has made 24 new Beat cars for the Media and very soon they will be launching this product in India. Also for the new Tavera we were told to send our manpower for training which was cancelled just a day before the scheduled training,” said a GM dealer.On May 18, the Dealer Advisory Body formed by GM itself wrote to the top management seeking a meeting to get clarity on the way forward mainly seeking details on compensation, survival plan and repayment.(Email Copy from Dealer Advisory Body (DAB) to the GM top Management Seeking Clarity)Email:As the above email remained unanswered from the GM authority and it is noted that the email was sent by the body officially formed and recognized by the carmaker itself.We are surprised that there is no response from your side. Some of the DAB members have reached you/team and spoken to you but you have chosen to not give us time or respond to our request for meeting… Please understand that there is massive unrest among all India dealers and media is trying to reach dealers for our views…” the second letter reads. (The actual email is pasted below..while the email ids have been blurred deliberately)However, on May 19th evening Kaher Kazem, the managing director of GM India replied to DAB but failed to assuage the concern of the dealer. In his letter, he showed intention to meet the dealer individually rather than meeting the dealer body DAB.“We have developed a fair and transparent Transition Assistance Package for each dealer. However this package is specific for each dealer and will be only discussed F2F with each dealer principal. We are focusing all our resources to finalise these packages for each dealer and will start discussing them Face to Face with the dealer principals as early as coming Wednesday. An invitation will reach you soon,” Kaher Kazem, MD, GM India said in the letter.GM India making the announcement of compensation on case to case basis doesn’t look unfair as the situation, losses and requirement will certainly vary based on various factors like geography, region and size.However, the dealers claim that the company is forcing them to sign a non-disclosure agreement before sitting for any meeting which has sent the dealers into a tizzy.He further added that we are exploring the legal angle and have also approached the Federation of Automobiles Dealers Association (FADA)."The sudden decision of GM India to pull out of domestic retail has come as a rude shock not only for GM dealers but the entire dealer fraternity. It seems to be unilateral without confiding in their dealer partners.It is inducing a sense of insecurity in this business model.We at FADA are fully committed to back our GM dealer colleagues." said John K Paul FADA PresidentDAB has been constantly raising the concerns to GM, much before they had met the top management and shared their concern which is placed below. The most intriguing part is that in this meeting which happened just three weeks before the closure, GM executives informed about the Beat launch plan.(Letter from DAB after meeting on April 26, 2017)Some dealers fear that they will be abandoned with inadequate compensation. “There are hints that GM wants to pay a compensation to the tune of Rs 60 lakh to Rs 75 lakh per dealership which is very less. The cost on setting up a dealership minus land is no less than Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore depending on city,” points out one of the dealers.These more than 120 outlets are currently selling Chevrolet cars and some of them have been dealers since the company started its operations. Each of them have 70 to 150 employees which turns out to be over 10,000 people of which they fear that there could be a job loss of over 7000 in the coming few months. Some people may lose their jobs in the immediate future.GM India has also informed its employees in the Gurgaon head office to look for a new job and gave them a mere 45 days salary for each completed year of service. Many of these employees joined the company in the last 4-5 years when GM India had announced very aggressive plans to build its India operations.They believed in the story spun by the GM India leadership and left their career in some reputed auto companies to join GM India. Many of the employees we contacted emotionally broke down and could not bear the shock. “Given the current market scenario, it won't be easy for them to find jobs. As per some estimates, more than 500 people have been asked to leave,” a former GM employee told ETAuto.If we notice the communication from the GM India top management to the dealer partners wherein they have been consistently talking about product launches and no hint of closures only provides for the popular belief that GM India was being operated through a remote control by masters sitting in far off Detroit offices.The customers will also have to suffer as many of these workshops will soon move to a new brand as the profitability will go down. “On an average, every dealer will get 5-7 vehicles a day to service, which is certainly not enough to run such a high-cost business,” said an NCR dealer. Since 1994, GM has sold about 1 million cars in India of which about 5 lakh vehicles are still on road; however, in the last three years only about one lakh vehicles were sold which would be actual customers. Studies suggest that after warranty period gets over people move to a local repair shop to save cost. While, as the number of vehicle/customers fall the workshop also at times start overcharging the customers.So why is GM in such a tearing hurry to leave a market that is already the 5th largest in the world and tipped to be the 3rd largest in another 3 years’ time? In fact, not just India, GM is exiting Europe also completely and perhaps will be the only company that will not be present in Europe.Is it that a company like GM has no wherewithal/ knowhow on how to turn around these markets? Is it trying to take the easy route and chicken out? Who is responsible for taking such myopic decisions that have put at risk the very future of GM? With the Europe exit, GM volumes would be at a level of 9 million units or so. What is even more concerning is that close to 80% of these volumes will come from only 2 markets: North America (NA) and China.Is it a prudent strategy for any automaker to be dependent on just 2 markets for such a huge percentage of its volumes? What happens if China cools off, as we are already hearing that this year the market will not grow and auto OEMs will be engaged in major discount wars which will bleed the automakers badly.NA market has been as cyclical as any other market and will eventually come of the highs that we have seen in recent years. Oil prices are already inching up and once they cross a tipping point, the sale of trucks: the mainstay for GM’s profitability in NA, will also get hugely impacted as we saw in the year 2000 when GM went bankrupt.Without the German Opel and British Vauxhall brands, General Motors last year would have sold about 8.8 million vehicles, far behind Germany's Volkswagen AG and Japan's Toyota Motor Corp in the race to be the world's largest automaker.Opel and Vauxhall combined sold nearly 1.2 million vehicles and generated $18.7 billion in revenue in 2016, about 11 percent of General Motors' total. GMs President has stated that they want to take a lead in NA, China and in new technologies in the area of Mobility and perhaps the company is moving in that direction. But isn’t this strategy fraught with dangers as cited above?Is it that the professionals who run the company do so with sight set only on achieving next year goals or approving plans that help in maximizing their incentives? Is this the reason why no effort is made to turn around the loss making businesses and the easier option of shutting down the businesses taken with a view to maximizing the near term profitability and hence maximize own bonus?The CEO of GM Motor Mary Barra made $22 million in total compensation last year. Is it right to pay CEO’s so much when they have actually failed to secure the long term future of the company by not hedging the risks by making the business strong in multiple, growing geographies around the world? General Motors reported a pretax profit of $12.5 billion in 2016, up from $10.8 billion in 2015.Since the current GM International team has taken charge, they have shut down business after business: manufacturing in Australia has been shut, manufacturing in Indonesia has been shut, manufacturing in Thailand is at rock bottom levels and now plans are in final stages to completely exit the 5th largest market in the world. It has also exited South Africa while investment plan for Brazil have also been canceled.Brazil was until recently one of the world's five biggest auto markets, but it has sunk into the worst recession in 25 years and business confidence has been undermined by political uncertainty with a bid to impeach President Dilma Rousseff."I hope to see political and economic advances in the next six to 12 months, which would allow us to stick to our investment plan," Ammann told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.Probably their bonuses are also tied to profitability and that’s where they are going for the easier option of shutting down businesses. Markets like India, Indonesia and other markets in ASEAN region hold a long term potential and need to be nurtured with the right kind of strategy.