Maven: GM, Take Note

(Editor's note: To access some of these stories, registration or a subscription may be required. Please check the individual links for the site's policy.)

The business media are like an anvil strapped to The Business Press Maven's back, but once in a while I read a story that is so rich in insight, even in a small amount of space, that it makes all the craggy, intellectually desolate nonsense I have to read worthwhile.

Take a recent Business Week piece on General Motors(GM Quote). It allowed me to unstrap the anvil for a bit. Phew, that felt good.

The auto company has been guided to the lip of a cliff in part by following the flawed line of thought that it needs to be No. 1 in market share -- as if there were some eternal prize for the car company that sells the most cars or being the girl with the most cake. And the business media generally play along, reporting sales rankings as if they were the end-all and be-all.

Valuing such a showy if meaningless sign of strength might seem important if you're working in the traditionally macho world of the newsroom, and it also resonates in the equally testosterone-filled boardroom, particularly for boardrooms in Detroit.

But being No. 1 doesn't matter one whit for investors.

Interestingly enough, The Business Press Maven -- who also writes about sports as mild-mannered reporter Marek Fuchs -- normally sees very few parallels between sports and business reporting. That's mostly because sports reporters usually grow up as sports fans, which gives them a built-in knowledge base, not to mention a naturally ingrained sense of history. But not many business journalists grow up obsessed with the stock market -- usually quite the opposite, which is where the trouble begins.