Audiobook21 hours
My Years With General Motors
Written by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.
Narrated by David Colacci
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
My Years with General Motors became an instant bestseller when it was first published in 1963. It has since been used as a manual for managers, offering personal glimpses into the practice of the "discipline of management" by the man who perfected it. This is the story no other businessman could tell-a distillation of half a century of intimate leadership experience with a giant industry and an inside look at dramatic events and creative business management.
Only a handful of business books have reached the status of a classic, having withstood the test of over fifty years' time. Even today, Bill Gates praises My Years with General Motors as the best book to read on business, and Business Week has named it the number one choice for its "bookshelf of indispensable reading."
Only a handful of business books have reached the status of a classic, having withstood the test of over fifty years' time. Even today, Bill Gates praises My Years with General Motors as the best book to read on business, and Business Week has named it the number one choice for its "bookshelf of indispensable reading."
Related to My Years With General Motors
Related audiobooks
Working Together: Why Great Partnerships Succeed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue EXCELLENCE Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where Have All the Leaders Gone? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Decline & Fall of IBM: End of an American Icon? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brilliant Mistakes: Finding Success on the Far Side of Failure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Covert Cows and Chick-fil-A: How Faith, Cows, and Chicken Built an Iconic Brand Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Wages Rise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Andrew Carnegie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Enlightened Capitalists: Cautionary Tales of Business Pioneers Who Tried to Do Well by Doing Good Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Driven to Delight: Delivering World-Class Customer Experience the Mercedes-Benz Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant Made General Motors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Around the Corner to Around the World: A Dozen Lessons I Learned Running Dunkin Donuts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Company Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Made From Scratch: The Legendary Success Story of Texas Roadhouse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hidden Truths: What Leaders Need to Hear but are Rarely Told Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFins: Harley Earl, the Rise of General Motors, and the Glory Days of Detroit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford and the Most Important Car Ever Made Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mean Business: How I Save Bad Companies and Make Good Companies Great Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vagabonds: The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's Ten-Year Road Trip Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The High-Velocity Edge: Second Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Toyota Way (Second Edition): 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Business For You
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How To Win Friends And Influence People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Company Rules: Or Everything I Know About Business I Learned from the CIA Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elon Musk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Will Own Nothing: Your War with a New Financial World Order and How to Fight Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Manage Your Money When You Don't Have Any Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sociopath Next Door: The Ruthless Versus the Rest of Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism (Intl Ed) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets Of Americas Wealthy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Artist's Way at Work: Riding the Dragon: Twelve Weeks to Creative Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is Life: 10 Writers on Love, Fear, and Hope in the Age of Disasters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Without a Doubt: How to Go from Underrated to Unbeatable Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seeing What Others Don't: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anatomy of Peace, Fourth Edition: Resolving the Heart of Conflict Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for My Years With General Motors
Rating: 3.8513514054054054 out of 5 stars
4/5
37 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is one of those books standing tall in my library for years. Content of the book is so revered that it has withstood test of time for me to revert to; initially when I was a novice manager and later as an experienced leader. The book, first published in 1964, about Sloan as an architect of concept of management in first half of 20th century and as a force behind major corporation for America's performance in World War 2. The book is such a solid classic that we, even now in 21st century, resort to the pioneering lessons of last century on how one corporation, led by a man, defined foundation of America's economic leadership in forty years following WW2. We've sure heard about America's motor industry and the golden period but knowledge about how the industry mobilised for record production, how the country's economy flourished and how even Japanese learned lessons and became great economic power themselves is awe inspiring. A behemoth of study, this book is for those who are enthusiastic to know how great corporations are built (Sloan was at GM for 40+ years!). Have guts to imbibe what it takes to build one, the likes of General Motors! This books holds a status of GREAT BUSINESS CLASSIC; if you want to read only one business case, this is an ultimate volume.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is so highly rated because Sloan conveys through simple, concise language the solutions to the same problems we have made so complex (not that I know how to simplify them again). He writes it as a story. Credits include Bill Gate's acclaim and my original prompt to read it based on it's inclusion in a list of the top ten business books of all time. Sloan began with an engineering background, some business experience and a successful bearings business. It was bought by GM when the firm was consolidating horizontally and vertically. Sloan was at the front of that early success, from the 20's and into the 60's. To summarize it into one lesson: centralize what is most effective centralized, then let human initiative drive from that common framework. Sloan can be credited with running the first corporation of that size with reason, fair dealing, and a visionary outlook. He foresaw the impact of business trends, war, and technology, and yet he was flexible when the consensus opposed him. He carefully considered their international footprint (and re-entry into Opel when assets were returned after WWII). He brought international talent when the design team needed more new influence. He fits the profile of the Type 5 leader described in "Good to Great" - modest, yet driven (in his words "any personal sacrifice for the cause"). He frequently gives credit to others and only once exhibits the slightest hint of boast in his own capabilities (wondering what would have happened to the French automaker Citroen if he or one of his capable peers had decided to run it). One other management theme: the firm would coordinate more during slow time and in times of expansion or matters of innovation, allow more decentralized control. Sloan divides the auto industry into 3 periods: pre-1908 (class market), 1908 to the mid 1920's (mass market), and beyond that (mass-class market). Four elements drove the transformation into the modern period: installment selling, the used-car trade-in, the closed body, and the annual model (would add improved roads as a driving external factor).
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is as good as its reputation. Try and get the first edition, it has photographs which the recent edition with the Drucker preface does not.How did a giant corporaton and the leading industrial giant, gaining consumer share at a time when cars were not yet a household item, and when competitor Ford's T-model started out with basics and went for the volume market, compete? GM under Sloan learned and changed.Inventory control, production lines, divisions and devolution of management, yet centralized, the first understanding of the used car trade-in and the role of dealer invetories, and the innovations in inter-departmental finance between the more popular lines, the creation of lines of report in response to certain bad years, the complete accountability to the board of directors, and the totally immersed attention to policy and direction that the CEO gave to the Executive Committee, and the role of estimates from divisions in order to better manage tight time schedules, are all presented in crisp style. Not dry but matter-of-factly. Remember that GM switched completely to military production in the patriotic cause after the U.S. joined WWII. And it had to be poised to return to civilian production.The book is more than of historic interst. An organism of a giant modern corporation responding to challenge and change must make decisions such as Alfred P. Sloan made.We may have become modern in many ways, and CEOs may not have to reinvent certain wheels. But can all the captains of industry of today explain their zigging and zagging with the clarity that Mr. Sloan, decades president of GM does?