General Motors

GENERAL MOTORS

GENERAL MOTORS is a worldwide corporation that produces everything from microchips to locomotives. William Crapo Durant of Flint, Michigan and a small group of investors formed the General Motors Company (GM)16 September 1908 in Trenton, New Jersey. Durant, who already owned Buick Motor Company, bought small car and parts manufacturers and incorporated them into GM. Among Durant's first acquisitions were Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Oakland (Pontiac). By 1920 GM had purchased more than 30 companies. After World War I GM experienced a decline so severe Durant resigned his post as president. In 1923 the Board of Directors elected Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. president (10 May 1923–3 May 1937)and Chairman of the Executive Committee (3 May 1937–2 April 1956). Sloan, whose Hyatt Roller Bearing Company joined GM in 1919, utilized creative management techniques that made GM the largest car and truck manufacturer in the world. Under Sloan's leadership, GM developed a number of firsts including independent front wheel suspension and the automatic transmission. While GM participated in all U. S. war efforts, its most dramatic contribution was during World War II. From 1942 through the end of the war, GM's plants stopped all non-military production. Producing ball bearings to bombers, GM was responsible for 13,000 planes and a fourth of the engines produced for all planes. In all, GM produced 12. 3 billion dollars worth of military materials. After the war GM experienced its share of the postwar boom, and by the sixties and seventies it was taking advantage of new technologies to make cars more efficient and safe even before government regulations went into effect. During the oil crisis of the 1970s GM experienced a decline in sales but responded by designing lighter and more economical autos. During the 1980s and 90s, GM continued to expand and opened plants in Germany, Brazil, Thailand, and Spain. In order to compete with an expanding import market GM developed Saturn located in Spring Hill, Tennessee, in 1990 and in 1996 it developed its own version of the electric car. GM has also been involved in various humanitarian projects such as a housing project with Habitat for Humanity for its employees in Mexico and the "Care and Share" program to collect food.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cray, Ed. Chrome Colossus: General Motors and its Times. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1980.

Madsen, Axel. Deal Maker: How William C. Durant Made General Motors. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999.

Smith, Roger B. Building on 75 Years of Excellence: The General Motors Story. New York: The Newcomen Society of the United States, 1984.

Lisa A. Ennis