GM CFO says automaker must cut costs to avoid 'serious damage'

General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra and Chief Financial Officer Dhivya Suryadevara told employees on Thursday the company needed to take immediate aggressive steps to cut costs. On a webcast, Suryadevara warned "if we don’t take significant austerity measures we will do serious damage to the long-term viability of our company," according to a recording heard by Reuters.

Barra told employees the largest U.S. automaker is "aggressively taking costs out of the business wherever we can by suspending work on some product programs and cutting our marketing budgets and hundreds more actions."