Alfred P. Sloan
1875 – 1966 American business executive, president and chairman of General Motors
Longtime head of General Motors who built the model of the modern managerial corporation, the decentralised divisions overseen by a central office.
- Affiliations
- General Motors
Alfred P. Sloan led General Motors from the 1920s and turned it into the world's largest carmaker, overtaking Ford. He created the multidivisional structure, separate brands run as semi-independent divisions under a central financial and strategic office, which became the template for the large managerial firm. He introduced the annual model change and a car for every purse and purpose, tactics later criticised as planned obsolescence that pushed buyers to trade up. His name lives on in the Sloan Foundation and the MIT Sloan School. His management ideas were set out in his memoir My Years with General Motors.
Connections
- associate of Alfred Chandler — Chandler made Sloan's GM the model case of modern managerial capitalism.
- associate of Alfred Chandler — Studied Sloan's GM as the exemplar of the managerial enterprise.
- rival of Henry Ford — Sloan's GM overtook Ford by offering a car for every purse and purpose.
- associate of Pierre S. du Pont — His chosen manager who built General Motors.
In the timeline
- 1908 Founding of General Motors the president who built its modern managerial structure