High finance is different from business experience. Yes the two worlds cross-pollinate, but by and large they are not the same. In some ways, it is like software development and IT. I contend that it is the people who did not learn the lessons of the past that were more likely to decide to become over-leveraged (let alone the massive pressure to do so as it seemed to be working for everyone else.) I presume (baselessly) that the appreciation for experience and history is something that is cultivated and evolves over the length of a person's career.
That being said, adaptable and intelligent people should be able to pick up on business decisions relatively quickly if they are given adequate support staff.
And this is the auto industry. Their bad decisions based on their vaunted experience has led them to the situation they face now.
Experience didn't save them. Hell on the other side, experience didn't make Toyota the company it is now (although they did recently post a loss, they are hardly in GM's position). Willingness to disregard that experience and try something that made sense did.
Years of experience is a poor indicator of success.
Experience did make Toyota the company it is now. If you read about LEAN, it is all about learning from what you do, and performing constant variation to see if you can do things better. it is NOT about "disregarding that experience."
The present shape of the auto industry is complex, and not simply attributable to the hubris of its leaders. The outsourcing of parts manufacturing, a labour union that is too strong, a lack of funding for attractive design, a government that offered too many protections, and last but not least, the entitlement culture of the american auto industry.
The American auto industry was not competitive. I am not suggesting it was easy to make money, I am suggesting that we simply did not keep up the hunger for "new & better". To say that is merely the product of age and experience is foolhardy at best.
The change to LEAN and JIT production was a radical new way to produce cars. That's what I meant by disregarding experience, not that they are completely fly by the seat of their pants all the time. They completely revamped what it meant to be an automobile manufacturer by trying a new process they had no experience with. They realized experience isn't a goal in and of itself and that sometimes it can be a hindrance.
That being said, adaptable and intelligent people should be able to pick up on business decisions relatively quickly if they are given adequate support staff.