GM's Akerson: Another Outsider for Detroit

Once again,General Motors has reached outside the auto industry for its top leadership.

Former telecom and turnaround executive Dan Akerson will replace telecom exec Ed Whitacre at GM, while Boeing (NYSE: BA) veteran Alan Mulally will continue to run Ford (NYSE: F). Of the Detroit three, only Chrysler is run by a car guy, Sergio Marchionne. He got there because, with government help, he bought the company.

At one point during the industry's dramatic 2009 restructuring, all three were run by outsiders. Chrysler's CEO was Bob Nardelli, who had spent three decades at General Electric (NYSE: GE) and six years as CEO of Home Depot (NYSE: HD).

What's driving the outsider focus? "What they were doing before was not working," said Bruce Belzowski, associate director of the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute. "You want to find out if new people will do something different." Moreover, Belzowski said, Mulally's success at Ford and Whitaker's success at GM underscore the benefit of bringing in outsiders.

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