AS GENERAL MOTORS moves ahead with its revitalisation plan and works to get itself out of bankruptcy, the automaking conglomerate is reportedly considering a change of its corporate colours.

Company insiders report that the background colour of GM’s logo may end up turning from blue to green - a gesture that GM hopes will tell consumers that it is a stronger, more-focused organisation with a new emphasis on eco-friendly technology.

A final decision on the background colour has yet to be made, but, if approved, it will be the first major change to GM’s logo since the current design first surfaced in the mid-1960s.

However with a drastic corporate reorganisation currently underway, branding is perhaps the least of GM’s concerns right now.

The 100 year-old company has been given approval by the US courts to transfer its assets into a new company, which will be known as “New GM”, while non-performing brands and assets will be left behind, packaged up and sold.

Four-thousand white-collar jobs are expected to be cut, including around 450 executive-level positions. Most of these job losses are expected to come from the dropping of brands such as Hummer and Saturn and the closure of some 14 manufacturing facilities.

GM’s total salaried workforce in the US is expected to be slashed by 21 percent, from 29,650 to 23,500.

GM CEO Fritz Henderson is also keen to eliminate much of the corporate bureaucracy that strangled “old” GM, and the company’s new executive structure will be much more streamlined and less comittee-heavy.

A renewed focus on small cars is also on the agenda, as cash-strapped buyers move away from larger, fuel-hungry cars and into fuel-efficient hatchbacks and small sedans - a segment that GM has largely ignored until now.

Will GM’s new change in direction (and possibly colour) yield a return to profitability?

That’s the question the markets and US-taxpayers will be asking. And they won’t get an answer in the short term.