My Years with General Motors

An incredible man! We need more like him to throttle the huge corporations and return us to making America prosper. Keep your dollars in the USA!

This book first of all is a very well written book, it breaks down in a very structural way, what the author tries to convey. The book also reflects the thinking that went around on building General Motors, I don't think the reader is going to find many insights to management, as it has advanced so much, but the reader will be able to understand the logics and the insight of how to build strong business procedures, and for then strong organizations. I do strongly recommend this book to be read. Rafael Weill Venezuela

Alfred P. Sloan Jr. was CEO of General Motors from 1923 to 1946. This book was originally published in 1964. Sloan is seen as the first person to have worked out systematic organization in a big company, planning and strategy, measurements, the principle of decentralization - in short, basic concepts of a discipline of management. This is a difficult book to review, since it is more a historic piece on GM's history and development from Sloan's perspective than an autobiography. It does not discuss the individual Alfred P. Sloan Jr., it discusses Alfred P. Sloan Jr. as professional manager. The chapters also come across as business school lessons in different subjects, ranging from general management through to accounting, marketing and compensation strategies.The book consists of two parts. "Part One is an integrated continuous story of the main lines of General Motors' progress, involving the origin and development of the corporation's basic management concepts in the areas of organization, finance and product." It discusses the extreme growth and development of the automobile industry from the early 1900s through to the early 1960s. It also discusses the methods General Motors introduced used to manage the corporation (Sloan all through the book keeps emphasizing the concept of the corporation). He later became known as a committee-man, because he used different types of committees to get/keep various divisions talking and working with each other."Part Two consists of individually distinct sections dealing in some detail with engineering, distribution, overseas operations, war and defense products, incentive compensation, and other aspects and branches of the enterprise." This part of the book discusses in greater detail the different experiences and events during Sloan's reign as CEO. It discusses some very interesting subjects, such as the evolution of the automobile, relationships with dealers, World War I and II efforts, and personnel and labor relations. Chapter 23 and 24 are really the conclusion to this book.Yes, this is a great book. It is a TRUE business classic. It discusses all the subjects involved in business from a CEO's point of view. I was amazed to see the amount of detail Sloan has gone through while writing this book, there are plenty of quotes from annual reports, memoranda, conversations, etc. However, some readers will be disappointed by the lack of insight into Sloan's personal life. This particular edition includes an introduction by Peter F. Drucker, who explains why this book is MUST reading for all MBA and business students, but also all people that want to be serious about management. Highly recommended. The book is written in simple business US-English.

Alfred Sloan can tell it like no other. From the early days of GM to the time he retired, this book chronicles the issues that faced GM. Marketing, segmentation, labor relations, competition, and many other aspects of managing an industrial giant. If you like this type of book, this is a classic. Prefer the tales and hype of the net economy, then this one will probably put you to sleep, though there are lessons here that anyone can learn from.

Alfred Sloan teaches the reader how an successful manufacturing company should be organized and operated. He shows how GM involved the Kettering Research Labs in elements of product improvement, how the various divisions of GM were organized and their relationship to the parent organization, how they employed developments from Kettering Labs such as the electric self starter and the "Kettering Ignition System" into modern auto design.Mr. Sloan also describes how GM entered non-automotive businesses such as Frigidare Refrigerators and diesel electric train engine manufacturing and grew those entities into successful enterprises.A must-read for students of the manufacturing business.