By Chrissie Thompson; Detroit Free Press ~ Sep 08, 2010

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson said GM needs to go on the attack in his first companywide broadcast to GM employees since becoming CEO last week.

“He said, ‘We’re good right now, but we’ve got to get a lot better,’ “ said a person who watched the broadcast. “ ‘We have this great opportunity because of this clean balance sheet to become an aggressor rather than a reactive company. We have to take an attack mentality to the business.”

Akerson, GM’s fourth CEO since March 2009, told employees he thought he could do more good for the U.S. as GM’s CEO than he did in his career as a naval officer, said the person, who wasn’t authorized to speak about the town hall meeting and didn’t want to be named.

He also shared some more personal details. Akerson said he voted Republican and talked of the football loss his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy, suffered on Labor Day to the University of Maryland, the person said.

One GM employee asked Akerson to define character, based on a homework assignment the employee’s son had this week.

“Reputation is what others see, and character is what God sees,” Akerson said, according to the source. The CEO also gave out advice he gave to his children and grandchildren: “ ‘Go back and check and make sure you’ve done it absolutely right,’ ” the source recalled.

Akerson said he was prohibited legally from talking about GM’s upcoming stock offering, which a source has said GM has tentatively planned for mid-November.

Ed Whitacre, who transferred the CEO position to Akerson on Sept. 1, joined the new CEO in the town hall meeting, saying good bye to the employees he has led as CEO since December. Whitacre will cede the chairmanship of GM’s board to Akerson by the end of this year.

Contact Chrissie Thompson: [email protected].