Alfred P. Sloan: Difference between revisions

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| image = Alfred Sloan.jpg

| caption = Alfred P. Sloan in 1937

| birth_name = Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr.

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1875|5|23}}

| birth_place = [[New Haven, Connecticut]], U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1966|2|17|1875|5|23}}

| death_place = [[Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center]], = [[New York City]], U.S.

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| known_for = President & CEO of [[General Motors]]

| education = [[Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute]],<ref name=WhoWas>{{cite web |url=http://www.sloan.org/about-the-foundation/who-was-alfred-p-sloan-jr/ |title=Who was Alfred P. Sloan Jr.? |publisher=Alfred P. Sloan Foundation |access-date=2015-06-09}}</ref> [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]

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| spouse = Irene Jackson

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Sloan wrote his memoir, ''My Years with General Motors'',<ref name="Sloan1964">{{Harvnb|Sloan|1964}}.</ref> in the 1950s.<ref name="McDonald2003">{{Harvnb|McDonald|Seligman|2003}}.</ref> Like [[Henry Ford]], the other "head man" of an automotive colossus, Sloan is remembered with a complex mixture of admiration for his accomplishments, appreciation for his philanthropy, and unease or reproach regarding his attitudes during the [[interwar period]] and World War II.<ref name="wpost-30nov98" />

Sloan became president and owner of [[Hyatt Roller Bearing]], a company that made [[Rolling-element bearing|roller- and ball-bearings]], in 1899 when his father and another investor bought out the company from the previous owner. An account stated that Sloan persuaded his father to buy a controlling interest in the company for $5,000 and let him manage it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peters |first=Will |title=Leadership Lessons: Alfred Sloan |publisher=New Word City |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-936529-16-2 |language=en}}</ref> [[Oldsmobile]] was Hyatt's first automotive customer, with many other companies soon following suit. In 1916 Hyatt merged with other companies into [[UnitedHenry Motors CompanyLeland]], whichwas soonamong becamehis part of [[General Motors Corporation]]clients. SloanBy became vice-president of GM1903, thenhe presidentwas (1923),said andto finallyhave chairman ofsummoned the boardyoung (1937).Sloan Inand 1934,castigated hehim establishedfor thedelivering philanthropic,inconsistent nonprofitquality [[Alfredof P.his Sloanbearings' Foundation]]tolerances. GMAccording underto Sloan, becamethis famousconversation forallowed managinghim diverseto operationsgain with"a financialgenuine statisticsconception suchof aswhat returnmass onproduction investment;should thesereally measuresmean."<ref>{{Cite werebook introduced|last=Wood to|first=John GMCunningham by|title=Alfred [[DonaldsonP. Brown]],Sloan: aCritical protegeEvaluations ofin GMBusiness vice-presidentand [[JohnManagement, JVol. Raskob]].2 Raskob|last2=Wood came|first2=Michael toC. GM|publisher=Taylor as& anFrancis advisor|year=2003 to|isbn=0-415-24830-2 [[Pierre|location=London S.|pages=141 du|language=en}}</ref> Pont]]Ford andMotor theCompany's [[DuPontFord Model T|duModel PontT]] corporation;also theused latterHyatt wasbearings aand, principalfor investora intime, GMover whosehalf executivesof largelythe rancompany's GMbearings inwent theto 1920sFord.<ref name=":0" />

In 1916 Hyatt merged with other companies into [[United Motors Company]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Farber |first=David |title=Sloan Rules: Alfred P. Sloan and the Triumph of General Motors |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-226-23804-0 |location=Chicago |pages=22 |language=en}}</ref> which soon became part of [[General Motors Corporation]]. Sloan became vice-president of GM, then president (1923), and finally chairman of the board (1937). In 1934, he established the philanthropic, nonprofit [[Alfred P. Sloan Foundation]]. GM under Sloan became famous for managing diverse operations with financial statistics such as return on investment; these measures were introduced to GM by [[Donaldson Brown]], a protege of GM vice-president [[John J. Raskob]]. Raskob came to GM as an advisor to [[Pierre S. du Pont]] and the [[DuPont|du Pont]] corporation; the latter was a principal investor in GM whose executives largely ran GM in the 1920s.

Sloan is credited with establishing [[model year|annual styling changes]], from which came the concept of [[planned obsolescence]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hounshell|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9H3tHKUFcfsC|title=From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=1984|isbn=978-0-8018-3158-4|location=Baltimore, MD|language=en}}</ref> He also established a pricing structure in which (from lowest to highest priced) [[Chevrolet]], [[Pontiac (automobile)|Pontiac]], [[Oldsmobile]], [[Buick]] and [[Cadillac]], referred to as the ladder of success, did not compete with each other, and buyers could be kept in the GM "family" as their buying power and preferences changed as they aged. In 1919, he and his corporate deputies created the [[General Motors Acceptance Corporation]], a financing arm that practically invented the [[auto loan]] credit system, that allowed car buyers to bypass having to save for years to buy Ford's affordable car.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/americandream/b1.html |title=The American Dream and Consumer Credit |first=Stephen |last=Smith |website=American RadioWorks |access-date=December 28, 2019}}</ref> These concepts, along with Ford's resistance to the change in the 1920s, propelled GM to industry-sales leadership by the early 1930s, a position it retained for over 70 years. Under Sloan's direction, GM became the largest industrial enterprise the world had ever known.

Sloan maintained an office in 30 Rockefeller Plaza in [[Rockefeller Center]], now known as the [[GE Building]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=13095 |title=Harry S. Truman: Letter to Alfred P. Sloan Jr., Concerning Cooperation by the Broadcasting Industry in the Highway Safety Program. December 3, 1948. |access-date=January 15, 2007 |archive-date=September 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180927005328/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=13095 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He retired as GM chairman on April 2, 1956. His memoir and management treatise, ''My Years with General Motors'',<ref name="Sloan1964"/> was more or less finished around this time; but GM's legal staff, who feared that it would be used to support an [[competition law|antitrust]] case against GM, held up its publication for nearly a decade. It was finally published in 1964. Sloan died in 1966.<ref name=NYT1>{{cite news |title=Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Dead at 90; G.M. Leader and Philanthropist; Alfred P. Sloan Jr., Leader of General Motors, Is Dead at 90 |quote=Alfred P. Sloan Jr., who shaped the General Motors Corporation into one of the world's largest manufacturing enterprises, died of a heart attack yesterday afternoon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Center here. He was 90 years old. |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=1966-02-18}}</ref>

The Sloan Foundation has made three grants, of $3 million each, to the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] (WMF). These are some of the largest grants that the WMF has received.<ref>{{cite web |title=Press releases/Wikimedia Foundation receives $3 million grant from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to make freely licensed images accessible and reusable across the web |date=9 January 2017 |url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/2017/01/09/sloan-foundation-structured-data/ |access-date=17 Mar 2019}}</ref>

In August 1938, a senior executive for General Motors, [[James D. Mooney]], received the [[Grand Cross of the German Eagle]] for his distinguished service to the [[Nazi Germany|Reich]]. "Nazi armaments chief [[Albert Speer]] told a congressional investigator that Germany could not have attempted its September 1939 [[blitzkrieg]] of Poland without the performance-boosting additive technology provided by Alfred P. Sloan and General Motors".<ref name="wpost-30nov98">{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm |last=Dobbs |first=Michael |title=Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged Nazi Collaboration |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=1998-11-30 |access-date=2009-06-01}}</ref><ref name=carmaker>{{cite news |last=Black, Edwin |url=http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/31057/hitler-s-carmaker/ |title=Hitler's Carmaker: How General Motors helped mobilize the Third Reich |newspaper=J Weekly |date=2006-12-01 |access-date=2015-05-05}}</ref><ref>Higham, Charles ''Trading with the Enemy''. New York: Doubleday, 1982</ref> During the war, GM's Opel Brandenburg facilities produced [[Junkers Ju 88|Ju 88]] bombers, [[truck]]s, [[land mine]]s and [[torpedo]] [[detonator]]s for Nazi Germany.<ref name=carmaker /> Charles Levinson, formerly deputy director of the European office of the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations|CIO]], alleged that Sloan remained on the board of [[Opel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://libcom.org/library/allied-multinationals-supply-nazi-germany-world-war-2 |title=How the Allied multinationals supplied Nazi Germany throughout World War II |publisher=libcom.org |access-date=2009-06-18 |year=2006 |last=Marriott, Red}} Excerpted from Higham, Charles. ''Trading with the Enemy - The Nazi-American Money Plot 1933-1949'' New York: Doubleday, 1982.</ref>

* {{Cite book |last1=McDonald |first1=John |last2=Seligman |first2=Dan |year=2003 |title=A ghost's memoir: the making of Alfred P. Sloan's My Years with General Motors |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |location=Boston, Massachusetts, US |isbn=978-0-262-63285-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISBN0262632853 }}

[[Category:General Motors former executives]]