General Motors may have been getting good press lately on the condition of its vastly improved cars and designs, but as far as management goes - the press coverage has been less than kind to the General. That said, the hard working execs in Detroit may have just received a reprieve from an unlikely source - The Economist.

The UK based political "newspaper" that covers all subjects including the tea in China ran the story, "General Motors: Turn Around?" in this week's print edition. In the article, they suggest that the world's top automaker might, just might have arrested its spiral into bankruptcy and may, in fact, hold on to its top spot for longer. If GM is able to manage both feats, the company would have its global manufacturing network largely to thank.

"The carmaker's previously autonomous regional operations are now working together coherently, as Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman and "car czar" , farms out duties. North America is developing the big pick-up trucks that dominate the local market and Europe will handle mainstream passenger cars. The car unit of South Korea's Daewoo, now a GM subsidiary, will work on entry-level models and Holden, an Australian subsidiary, will develop big saloons. If GM can make this approach work, it will achieve economies of scale that only Toyota can match, says David Cole, of the Centre for Automotive Research, a consultancy."

Promising concept. Let's see if the General can do it.

Read The Economist article in full.