Person

Alfred P. Sloan

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Overview

Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. ( ; May 23, 1875February 17, 1966) was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman and CEO of General Motors Corporation. Sloan, first as a senior executive and later as the head of the organization, helped GM grow from the 1920s through the 1950s, decades when concepts such as the annual model change, brand architecture, industrial engineering, automotive design (styling), and planned obsolescence transformed the industry, and when the industry changed lifestyles and the built environment in America and throughout the world. Sloan wrote his memoir, My Years with General Motors, in the 1950s. Like Henry Ford, the other "head man" of an automotive colossus, Sloan is remembered today 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. Life and career Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Sloan studied electrical engineering initially at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, then transferred to and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1895. While attending MIT he joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity. In 1898, Sloan married Irene Jackson of Roxbury, Massachusetts. The couple had no children but Sloan was very close to his younger half-brother, Raymond.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“I never give orders. I sell my ideas to my associates if I can. I accept their judgment if they convince me, as they frequently do, that I am wrong. I prefer to appeal to the intelligence of a man rather than attempt to exercise authority over him.”
— Alfred P. Sloan in: Industrial Digest and Commidities and Finance, (1925), Vol. 4. p. 16
“There has to be this pioneer, the individual who has the courage, the ambition to overcome the obstacles that always develop when one tries to do something worthwhile, especially when it is new and different.”
— Alfred P. Sloan Jr. (1941), cited in: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, "Mission Statement," at sloan.org, 2016.
“Bedside manners are no substitute for the right diagnosis.”
— Alfred P. Sloan, quoted in: The Almanac of Quotable Quotes from 1990. (1991), p. 103
“Technological progress — and it is a pity more do not appreciate it — is the one sound approach to increased employment and higher wages. There is no other way. Irrespective of what is being said to the contrary, new industries can be created, present industries can be expanded, unemployment can be eliminated in a practical way”
— p. 10; Published earlier in: Drugs, Oils & Paints, (1939). Vol. 54-55, p. 335
“There has to be this pioneer, the individual who has the courage, the ambition to overcome the obstacles that always develop when one tries to do something worth while, especially when it is new and different.”
— p. 127
“I hold that if companies are attacked simply because they are big then an attack on efficiency must be a corollary of that attack. If we penalize efficiency, how can we as a nation compete in the economy of the world at large?”
— p. 514

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

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Overview

Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. ( ; May 23, 1875February 17, 1966) was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman and CEO of General Motors Corporation. Sloan, first as a senior executive and later as the head of the organization, helped GM grow from the 1920s through the 1950s, decades when concepts such as the annual model change, brand architecture, industrial engineering, automotive design (styling), and planned obsolescence transformed the industry, and when the industry changed lifestyles and the built environment in America and throughout the world. Sloan wrote his memoir, My Years with General Motors, in the 1950s. Like Henry Ford, the other "head man" of an automotive colossus, Sloan is remembered today 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. Life and career Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Sloan studied electrical engineering initially at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, then transferred to and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1895. While attending MIT he joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity. In 1898, Sloan married Irene Jackson of Roxbury, Massachusetts. The couple had no children but Sloan was very close to his younger half-brother, Raymond.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“I never give orders. I sell my ideas to my associates if I can. I accept their judgment if they convince me, as they frequently do, that I am wrong. I prefer to appeal to the intelligence of a man rather than attempt to exercise authority over him.”
— Alfred P. Sloan in: Industrial Digest and Commidities and Finance, (1925), Vol. 4. p. 16
“There has to be this pioneer, the individual who has the courage, the ambition to overcome the obstacles that always develop when one tries to do something worthwhile, especially when it is new and different.”
— Alfred P. Sloan Jr. (1941), cited in: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, "Mission Statement," at sloan.org, 2016.
“Bedside manners are no substitute for the right diagnosis.”
— Alfred P. Sloan, quoted in: The Almanac of Quotable Quotes from 1990. (1991), p. 103
“Technological progress — and it is a pity more do not appreciate it — is the one sound approach to increased employment and higher wages. There is no other way. Irrespective of what is being said to the contrary, new industries can be created, present industries can be expanded, unemployment can be eliminated in a practical way”
— p. 10; Published earlier in: Drugs, Oils & Paints, (1939). Vol. 54-55, p. 335
“There has to be this pioneer, the individual who has the courage, the ambition to overcome the obstacles that always develop when one tries to do something worth while, especially when it is new and different.”
— p. 127
“I hold that if companies are attacked simply because they are big then an attack on efficiency must be a corollary of that attack. If we penalize efficiency, how can we as a nation compete in the economy of the world at large?”
— p. 514

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.