Maven: GM, Take Note

But the business and sports media do share this mistaken assumption that it is important to be No. 1. Sure, it's great to win a championship. But how many good teams have been ruined and dismantled in a push to get over the hump and win the big one? The fact is, a lot of intangibles go into winning, say, a Super Bowl. You can make a lot of mistakes in blind pursuit of top status, especially in business, where high sales numbers do not necessarily translate into correspondingly high profits.

Which brings us, somewhat circuitously, back to General Motors and Business Week.

Taking the form of an open note to General Mayhem -- er, Motors -- Business Week says size doesn't matter. Let Toyota(TM Quote) be No. 1 and put up with all the scrutiny and other baggage of that status. If it doesn't come harnessed to automatic profit -- and it doesn't -- why spend billions for the opportunity to thump your chest? At least in sports, you get a parade if you win. In business, you get a few meaningless headlines.

Business Week is not suggesting that General Motors become some fringe element in the auto business. And you might think the advice is trite, a bit simplistic.

But as Business Week is right to point out (good little scribes, good), the Head Fred of GM, G. Richard Wagoner Jr., is talking a good game about profits -- but the gasbag is also thinking about buying Proton Holdings. And while a purchase of the distressed Malaysian carmaker would help in the market share department, you have a better chance of seeing The Business Press Maven eat humble pie than you do of seeing Proton ever contribute to GM's bottom line.