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First quarter report shows that the sales of the Toyota Motor Corp. have swiftly surpassed that of the General Motors Corp.s. This is why critics in the industry are expecting GM to double its efforts to hold on to its crown as the worlds largest automaker.

The excitement continues and the thrill leaves enthusiasts and critics astonished. Is Toyota about to grab the finest title in the auto industry which was safeguarded by GM in the past three decades? Texan Ross Perot, during his brief stint on GM's board of directors, once described the automaker as "isolated and insulated" from the American driving public. Just about two decades later, amid a massive overhaul at the world's largest automaker, signs are starting to come into view that GM is shedding that impeccable and domineering style of management.

GM is taking a more flowing and unfastened approach to doing business in an industry it once ruled. This is because the company was jolted into action by unprecedented sales doldrums and market share declines resulting to overwhelming losses. Experts in the industry are now called on to guide top executives in making critical decisions. GMs pool of designers is now given a wider leeway and freedom to whip up product lines with no advance approval from the top executives. And, in a first for GM, the public could have final say in choosing a new vehicle to be sold worldwide.

"The company that I hired into no longer exists - which is a good thing," said John Manoogian, the design director for Cadillac, who started his GM career 30 years ago in the now-defunct Oldsmobile division. "There's a new sense of where we are and what we have to go to. We have senior managers saying, 'You guys show us what you can do.'"