GM CEO ready to travel in steerage

New Wal-Mart CEO may need some media training; useful Web sites for your exec speakers; how PepsiCo’s CEO branded the phrase “performance with purpose”

“We got the message,” says GM re: jetsetting: When General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner goes back to Washington this week to discuss the proposed auto bailout, he won’t travel by corporate jet. “We got the message,” said a GM spokesman, after CEOs from GM, Ford and Chrysler used private planes to fly to D.C. with hands outstretched for the bailout. May we suggest that this week, the auto CEOs take the Washington Metro to their meetings, wear frayed neckties, and carry their lunches in brown paper bags?

New Wal-Mart CEO rough around the edges? Mike Duke, just named the successor to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, may cause some headaches for the company’s communications team. “Unlike Mr. Scott, who has considerable personal charm in public, Mr. Duke has a hard-charging public persona, rarely admits that the company has made mistakes and is uneasy with journalists and critics,” says the Financial Times.