Sublime

I have always believed in planning big, and I have always discovered after the fact that, if anything, we didn’t plan big enough. But I did not foresee the size of General Motors or have size in mind as an objective. I simply took the view that we should go at the job vigorously and without hampering restrictions. I put no ceiling on progress. Grow

I have always taken a strong stand for the shareholder, especially in such matters as representation on the board of directors and its committees, and the payment of dividends. Yet I have also considered myself as one of the breed that we now call the “executive”. Management has been my specialization. On many occasions when I was chief executive o

It parallels in a small way, but is only partially accountable for, his long-time habit of stirring up associates to see their reactions under stress. His lasting accomplishments were achieved when facing down opposition, such as when his directors opposed the Model T idea.

Now what did this tale of internal conflict over statistics come down to? Essentially it was a matter of statistical controls versus salesmanship, which was brought to a head in 1924 by a recession in the general economy following directly upon the boom year of 1923.

We poured many millions of dollars into this unproven product at a time when many of the customers for it were in serious financial condition or bankrupt and the majority of them appeared to be totally uninterested in innovation; and we thereby helped the railroads back to solvency — a fact that is acknowledged by railroad management today.

We set out to produce not for the chosen few but for the whole consumer public on the assumption of a continuously rising standard of living. Our interpretations of the significance of the rising standard of living marked an important difference between us and others in the formative years of the modern market.

It seems to me that management should now direct its energies toward INCREASING EARNING POWER through IMPROVED EFFECTIVENESS and REDUCED EXPENSE. In other words, the drive during the past few years has been for more and better cars of constantly increasing value. From now on we should drive just as hard toward still better cars, but we must give mo

It is not, therefore, a matter of the amount of profit but of the relation of that profit to the real worth of invested capital within the business.

Very large demands were made on General Motors during the next six years, and the corporation, I think I can say, like most of American industry, responded with distinction. When World War II began, General Motors rapidly converted itself from the nation’s largest manufacturer of automobiles to the nation’s largest producer of war materials. And wh