A GM bankruptcy looks increasingly likely; Chrysler has just three more days to complete a merger. The long-simmering turmoil among auto makers in the U.S. seems like it may come to a head as early as this week. If you were on a team looking to navigate a way forward, what questions would you ask? What data would you seek to examine? What predictive analytical tools would you want to construct?

I’d look outside of the traditional metrics — as far outside as I could go:

- How many employees can answer the questions, “What have you learned about our customers and products today?”  and “What are you doing with that knowledge?” (I’d be relentless until that number was 95%+);
- What is the ratio of hours-in-meetings to hours-at-work among management employees (I’d look to manage that down);
- How many shareholders and bondholders are also customers? They’re about to get stripped of a lot of value and it would be good to project how many of them — who should be loyalists — will jump to Toyota or Honda as a result. Who will take their place?
- How many 15 year-olds have a poster of one of our vehicles on their bedroom walls? Automotive lust fuels long-term brand loyalty and it helps to get that started while hormones are raging.

Where would you look? What advice would you give to these companies?