????每到周五下午，通用汽車公司（GM）的一群高管和工程師們就會離開底特律市中心的總部，前往位于密歇根州密爾福德市的試車場，進行所謂的“節(jié)孔試駕”。這個活動是由通用汽車北美業(yè)務總裁馬克·羅伊斯發(fā)起的，高管們會在新車研發(fā)的各個階段對車輛和競爭對手的同級車型進行試測，給出評估。每次試駕都是新車的一道坎，如果在某一個階段試駕失敗了，新車研發(fā)就要推遲，直到這個環(huán)節(jié)得到改進，比如2012款雪佛蘭科魯茲就遇到過這樣的經(jīng)歷，有時甚至可能因此直接把一款新車斃掉。比如通用曾想在美國銷售2010款的雪佛蘭奧蘭多，但試駕人員們試駕了這款在韓國生產(chǎn)的MPV后，覺得這款車的手動檔版本的內(nèi)飾不夠吸引人，因此把它的銷售計劃砍掉了。

????許多個試駕日里，在這支主要由男性構成的試駕員隊伍中都能看到一位女性的倩影，她就是通用汽車公司最高層的管理者之一、負責全球產(chǎn)品研發(fā)的高級副總裁瑪麗·芭拉。芭拉今年51歲，是一位公認的女強人。在底特律的大男子主義文化里，最需要男子氣概的工作莫過于產(chǎn)品研發(fā)，也就是創(chuàng)造和設計新車型。因為它需要敢于拿數(shù)十億美元冒險的勇氣、能夠領導數(shù)千名工程師的韌性、做幾百個決策的膽量——另外還得敢駕駛汽車在測試道路上高速飛奔。它是汽車行業(yè)的終級挑戰(zhàn)，有些最成功的產(chǎn)品研發(fā)人的名字至今仍然如雷貫耳，比如福特（Ford）的盧·沃拉迪，他憑1986版的福特金牛獲得了成功；再比如克萊斯勒（Chrysler）的平臺團隊之父弗朗索斯·卡斯丹，1992年凱迪拉克的新車使用了車廂前移式設計，這也是他的手筆；還有曾年當過海軍飛行員的鮑伯·盧茨，他一直都是個“純爺們”，而且他在2000年以后為通用汽車的設計賦予了嶄新的生命。

????因此，當2011年1月，通用董事長兼CEO丹·阿克森宣布，要讓瑪麗·芭拉接替一位擁有46年從業(yè)經(jīng)驗的工程師，負責公司的產(chǎn)品研發(fā)時，人們一定不免吃驚。因為芭拉相對來說知名度較低，而且她之前的工作還是人力資源。另外，芭拉過去的時間大半花在了裝配廠，沒有把多少時間花在試駕跑道上。因此她的產(chǎn)品研發(fā)經(jīng)驗非常有限，卻要負責整個通用的全球產(chǎn)品研發(fā)。一夜之間，芭拉就成了通用公司有史以來任職最高的女子，同時也成了全球汽車業(yè)級別最高的女性。

????On Friday afternoons, a group of top GM (GM) executives and engineers leave headquarters in downtown Detroit and heads for GM's proving grounds in Milford, Mich. for "knothole drives." Originated by Mark Reuss, head of GM's North American operations, the drives allow the executives to test new vehicles -- along with their competitors -- in successive stages of development and offer an assessment. The drives act like gates. Failure at any stage can cause a delay while refinements are made, as in the case of the 2012 Chevrolet Cruze, or outright cancellation. Plans to sell the 2010 Chevrolet Orlando in the U.S. were scrubbed after testers determined that the interior design of the manual-transmission version of the Korean-made van was unappealing.

????Many Fridays, the largely male contingent includes a woman, Mary Barra, senior vice president for global product development and one of GM's highest-ranking executives. Barra, 51, is a certified glass-ceiling breaker. In Detroit's macho culture, no job more reeks of testosterone than product development -- creating and engineering new models. It requires the willingness to risk billions of dollars, the tenacity to direct thousands of engineers, and the guts to make hundreds of decisions -- some while driving at high speeds around a test track. It is the ultimate challenge for alpha-male car guys and the names of the most successful practitioners still resonate: Ford's Lew Veraldi, who championed the revolutionary 1986 Ford Taurus; Francois Castaing, the father of Chrysler's platform teams and the engineer of its 1992 cab-forward cars; and?Bob Lutz, one-time Marine jet pilot and full-time über-male, who brought new life to GM design in the 2000s.

????So you could feel the reverberations all the way to Eight Mile Road when?GM chairman and CEO Dan Akerson?announced in January, 2011 that he was replacing a much-loved engineer who had 46 years on the job with Barra, a relative unknown whose most recent job had been running, of all things, human resources. Moreover, she had spent more of her career inside an assembly plant than she had on a test track, and she would be overseeing GM's global product portfolio with limited product development experience. Instantly, Barra had been elevated to the most important job at GM ever held by a woman and became the highest- ranking member of her sex in the global auto industry.