flâneur

Founders Notes: Alfred Sloan

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Billy, Alfred, and General Motors William Pelfrey Leland called Alfred Sloan himself into his private office in Detroit for one of the most severe tongue-lashings Alfred would ever experience. Billy Durant and Alfred Sloan (General Motors) David Senra "When Alfred died, all of the obituaries focused on how he had led General Motors to such heights. Under his leadership, the company share of the U.S. automobile market had risen from 12% to 52%. Its organizational structure and product strategy were emulated by corporations around the world." And this is a crazy sentence, check this out. "Its annual revenue surpassed the annual gross national product of half the world's countries." Now why I found this book so fascinating because there's this gigantic paradox that is present as you read this book, and that's something we've talked about over and over again on the podcast. And the author does a great job right here in explaining the paradox of the book in two sentences. He says, "Sloan's most constant criticism of Durant was that he acted on instinct and whim rather than facts. Yet the achievements and decisions of the Durant, the dreamer, were what made Sloan the manager's spectacula

Billy, Alfred, and General Motors William Pelfrey Leland called Alfred Sloan himself into his private office in Detroit for one of the most severe tongue-lashings Alfred would ever experience. Billy Durant and Alfred Sloan (General Motors) David Senra "When Alfred died, all of the obituaries focused on how he had led General Motors to such heights. Under his leadership, the company share of the U.S. automobile market had risen from 12% to 52%. Its organizational structure and product strategy were emulated by corporations around the world." And this is a crazy sentence, check this out.…

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