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Billy, Alfred, and General Motors: The Story of Two Unique Men, A Legendary Company, and a Remarkable Time in American History
"You couldn't find two more different men. Billy Durant was the consummate salesman, a brilliant wheeler-dealer with grand plans, unflappable energy, and a fondness for the high life. Alfred Sloan was the intellectual, an expert in business strategy and management, master of all things organizational. Together, this odd couple built perhaps the most successful enterprise in U.S. history, General Motors, and with it an industry that has come to define modern life throughout the world. Their story is full of timeless lessons, cautionary tales, and inspiration for business leaders and history buffs alike.
Billy, Alfred, and General Motors is the tale not just of the two extraordinary men of its title but also of the formative decades of twentieth-century America, through two world wars and sea changes in business, industry, politics, and culture. The book includes vivid, warts-and-all portraits of the legends of the golden age of the automobile, from "Crazy" Henry Ford, Ransom Olds, and Charles Nash to the brilliant but uncredited David Dunbar Buick and Cadillac founder Henry Leland.
The impact of Durant and Sloan on their contemporaries and their industry is matched only by the powerful legacy of their improbable and incredible partnership. Characters, events, and context -- all are brought skillfully and passionately to life in this meticulously researched and supremely readable book."
Billy, Alfred, and General Motors is the tale not just of the two extraordinary men of its title but also of the formative decades of twentieth-century America, through two world wars and sea changes in business, industry, politics, and culture. The book includes vivid, warts-and-all portraits of the legends of the golden age of the automobile, from "Crazy" Henry Ford, Ransom Olds, and Charles Nash to the brilliant but uncredited David Dunbar Buick and Cadillac founder Henry Leland.
The impact of Durant and Sloan on their contemporaries and their industry is matched only by the powerful legacy of their improbable and incredible partnership. Characters, events, and context -- all are brought skillfully and passionately to life in this meticulously researched and supremely readable book."
336 pages, Hardcover
First published March 27, 2006
42 people are currently reading
280 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 2, 2022
For those interested in the subject of car company history, the book is entertaining. Certainly it gives a good overview on the General Motors, its origins and culture. While providing both men, founder and manager points of view, the author offers a good perspective on the drivers for each one of them on the actions they took, their purpose and outcome. Nevetheless, I see no point going in parallel history on Ford records when they fell beyond contextualization. There seem to be many facts presented in a biased aproach, despite any accuracy, which at some point turned annoying. The author intended to show the greatness of GM, but could not avoid the temptation of comparing it to its lifelong rival.
July 21, 2018
Pelfrey tells a great story about two fascinating men: Billy Durant, an outgoing high school dropout, and Alfred Sloan, an introverted MIT-trained engineer. It took both of their skills to make General Motors the leading car company. Along the way, interesting characters like Henry Ford, David Buick, Pierre du Pont, and Louis Chevrolet enter the story. Overall a fun book to read with lessons for any business entrepreneur.
March 31, 2014
This book is a work of narrative journalism, and not good one. The title is misleading - this book is 85% about Billy Durant and 15% about Alfred Sloan. It's a fun read about an amazing time in US economic history, but don't expect to learn much from it. The author is a former GM public relations executive, and it shows in the text: lots of drama and little depth.
March 18, 2019
The title suggest the kind of book this is: a popular history and biography. For my purposes, there are other books worth consulting (see my review of Alfred P. Sloan, My Years with General Motors) and William Gustin's Billy Durant: Creator of General Motors.
For lay readers interested in the subject, however, its fine.
For lay readers interested in the subject, however, its fine.
October 21, 2020
A great read.
The book covers the heady days of the early automotive business in america. The author captures many of the colorful personalities involved and the entrepreneurial spirit at that time . He gives great weight to an under celebrated hero of American automotive history; Billy durant. Though the book is extensively researched, it reads almost like a fictional story partly because the author is able to capture the excitement and characters of the day.
The book covers the heady days of the early automotive business in america. The author captures many of the colorful personalities involved and the entrepreneurial spirit at that time . He gives great weight to an under celebrated hero of American automotive history; Billy durant. Though the book is extensively researched, it reads almost like a fictional story partly because the author is able to capture the excitement and characters of the day.
December 7, 2020
Less a biography of Billy Durant and Alfred Sloan and more a history of the early years of the automobile business. A well written fascinating read about how General Motors came into being and managed to stay a leader in the auto business for many decades. The book also gives brief history of the other car companies of the time and how they interacted with General Motors. Easy read with lots of anecdotal stories and trivia that one loves to read about.
July 22, 2024
Great history of General Motors and the beginnings of the auto industry in Flint. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking for a deep dive on the beginnings automotive industry.
January 22, 2025
Very good introduction to the early days of GM. Hints at later troubles in the section on labor but otherwise does not provide much information on recent crises.
February 4, 2015
Each Labor Day weekend I go to Auburn, Indiana for a classic car festival, including a trip to the Auburn Cord Dusenberg Museum that tells the story of automobile manufacturing in Indiana in the first decades of the Twentieth Century. I am always fascinated by the hundreds of small car companies that were founded by tinkering mechanics that added engines to carriages, or by an enterprising businessman to assemble and market autos made entirely from acquired parts.
These were true start up companies at the infancy stages of an industry, with the same as we are seeing today in technology. Many small companies enter the market with an incremental innovation or with access to a new piece of the market. Many of these companies quickly fail, but a few catch enough lightning for short-term success. Then consolidation begins, and access and control of capital becomes an equally important factor to pure innovation and operations.
Many of these pioneer automakers only produced a handful or even just one car under its own brand before being lost to history. The ones that have survived today, the Buick, Ford, Chevrolets, Chrysler, are the result of both a great vision and effort of their founders as much as pure fortune of being in the right place at the right time. Pelfrey's Billy, Alfred, and General Motors is a fascinating story of how two gentlemen had the right vision while being at the right place and time.
While other pioneers, especially Ford, were successful building scale from initial concepts, this story shows how Billy Durant's path to consolidate different brands being the first to create economies of capital gave GM the infrastructure and competitive advantage to quickly emerge as the early, dominant player in the industry. But GM's legacy was only solidified, the author argues, because Durant was succeeded by Alfred Sloan who tranformed Durant's conglomeration into a single-functioning company with economies of scale that could continue to compete and grow.
While even now we are seeing companies take a competitive advantage to grow to a dominant position and then later lose when it cannot adapt, the story of GM's early generations shows the rare company that is able to radically evolve. In recent years we have seen IBM reinvent itself after Microsoft's rise, and then Microsoft's struggle to change.
This book was great after reading the stories of the industrial revolution titans taking advantage of innovations and government trying to adapt to keep up with a rapidly changing country. The rise of the auto industry expands upon these trends resulting in stories of average born but industrious individuals competing and building national businesses. The true American story of the Twentieth Century was born.
Pelfry's book is a really fun read, 5/5 stars. It was written for a General Motors anniversary and maybe is a little too bias toward the company legacy, especially compared to Ford, but I didn't care here and the stories of the various characters and ventures were well researched and told.
These were true start up companies at the infancy stages of an industry, with the same as we are seeing today in technology. Many small companies enter the market with an incremental innovation or with access to a new piece of the market. Many of these companies quickly fail, but a few catch enough lightning for short-term success. Then consolidation begins, and access and control of capital becomes an equally important factor to pure innovation and operations.
Many of these pioneer automakers only produced a handful or even just one car under its own brand before being lost to history. The ones that have survived today, the Buick, Ford, Chevrolets, Chrysler, are the result of both a great vision and effort of their founders as much as pure fortune of being in the right place at the right time. Pelfrey's Billy, Alfred, and General Motors is a fascinating story of how two gentlemen had the right vision while being at the right place and time.
While other pioneers, especially Ford, were successful building scale from initial concepts, this story shows how Billy Durant's path to consolidate different brands being the first to create economies of capital gave GM the infrastructure and competitive advantage to quickly emerge as the early, dominant player in the industry. But GM's legacy was only solidified, the author argues, because Durant was succeeded by Alfred Sloan who tranformed Durant's conglomeration into a single-functioning company with economies of scale that could continue to compete and grow.
While even now we are seeing companies take a competitive advantage to grow to a dominant position and then later lose when it cannot adapt, the story of GM's early generations shows the rare company that is able to radically evolve. In recent years we have seen IBM reinvent itself after Microsoft's rise, and then Microsoft's struggle to change.
This book was great after reading the stories of the industrial revolution titans taking advantage of innovations and government trying to adapt to keep up with a rapidly changing country. The rise of the auto industry expands upon these trends resulting in stories of average born but industrious individuals competing and building national businesses. The true American story of the Twentieth Century was born.
Pelfry's book is a really fun read, 5/5 stars. It was written for a General Motors anniversary and maybe is a little too bias toward the company legacy, especially compared to Ford, but I didn't care here and the stories of the various characters and ventures were well researched and told.
March 26, 2014
Despite its title, this book is primarily about the life and career of William "Billy" Durant, from his youth as the grandson of a wealthy lumberman to his death as a nearly destitute bowling ally owner in Flint, MI. Billy, as he was called by everyone, created General Motors and guided its growth until 1920, coming perilously close to bankrupting it twice. Billy was a shoot from the hip wheeler - dealer who built GM by acquisition, financed by loans and stock issues. Alfred Sloan, who came to General Motors via Hyatt Bearing, one of Billy's many acquisitions, was the opposite of Billy: Billy was a high school dropout, risk taking natural salesman with a skill for manipulating stocks, while Alfred was a MIT decreed engineer who ran GM with well defined processes and with tight financial controls. The book provides a detailed history of GM from 1908 until 1920, years when Billy ran GM (withe the exception of 1910 until 1912, the time period beginning with Billy's forced resignation from GM until he utilized his second automotive company's (Chevrolet) stock to regain control of GM). The Sloan years (1922 until 1956) are covered at a high level
My criticism of this book is the brief treatment of the Sloan years. While Sloan's management processes are covered in some detail, the contributions of Harley Earl (auto styling and annual model changes)and Bill Knudsen (manufacturing operations)are glossed over. GM's domination of the US auto industry in the post WWII years (i.e., the development of automatic transmissions, high compression overhead valve V8s, and hardtop convertibles)is barely mentioned. This book was written in 2006, as GM was in rapid decline. While the author (who was associated witeh GM0 did not mentii0n it,. the management structure created by Sloan morphed into the sclerotic bureaucracy that contributed to GM's demise once Sloan's leadership ended.
My criticism of this book is the brief treatment of the Sloan years. While Sloan's management processes are covered in some detail, the contributions of Harley Earl (auto styling and annual model changes)and Bill Knudsen (manufacturing operations)are glossed over. GM's domination of the US auto industry in the post WWII years (i.e., the development of automatic transmissions, high compression overhead valve V8s, and hardtop convertibles)is barely mentioned. This book was written in 2006, as GM was in rapid decline. While the author (who was associated witeh GM0 did not mentii0n it,. the management structure created by Sloan morphed into the sclerotic bureaucracy that contributed to GM's demise once Sloan's leadership ended.
December 6, 2013
Unless you really want to learn about the automotive industry in America, I would recommend something else, like Crash Course by Paul Ingrassia or The Yugo by Jason Vuic. They are much more entertaining than this GM title.
That being said, there are many points to highlight about GM, such as they were the first company to setup pensions for their workers, prior to 401k and Social Security. They also established their own financing division, GMAC and their own automotive trade school and and was a major contributor to the war, but the information that is presented is just dry.
GM is probably the greatest industrial company in history, but the information is this book is just bland. You really have to like GM to get through this book. It's a very informative read, but I think it is written "as is" as history tells it without any drama or plot.
That being said, there are many points to highlight about GM, such as they were the first company to setup pensions for their workers, prior to 401k and Social Security. They also established their own financing division, GMAC and their own automotive trade school and and was a major contributor to the war, but the information that is presented is just dry.
GM is probably the greatest industrial company in history, but the information is this book is just bland. You really have to like GM to get through this book. It's a very informative read, but I think it is written "as is" as history tells it without any drama or plot.
February 24, 2015
It's Hard to Believe
I didn't realize how today's automobile market was created by just a few men, and how closely they were related, especially in the second and third decades of the twentieth century. This book deals with more than "Billy, Alfred, and General Motors." It is quite informative about the development of the auto industry in the United States. I found this book very enjoyable and rewarding, partly because I grew up in Michigan, and my father taught in the Flint public school system for over thirty years. The subject matter of this book represents a significant part of American history. I recommend it.
I didn't realize how today's automobile market was created by just a few men, and how closely they were related, especially in the second and third decades of the twentieth century. This book deals with more than "Billy, Alfred, and General Motors." It is quite informative about the development of the auto industry in the United States. I found this book very enjoyable and rewarding, partly because I grew up in Michigan, and my father taught in the Flint public school system for over thirty years. The subject matter of this book represents a significant part of American history. I recommend it.
December 17, 2014
A fun look at a different time in history
The book tells the story of one company and the two men who made it what it was and what it would become. What could be a slow, dry history is instead told in a way that keeps you turning the pages. I enjoyed the story and learned many new things that I didn't know before reading the book. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in cars, corporations, or history.
The book tells the story of one company and the two men who made it what it was and what it would become. What could be a slow, dry history is instead told in a way that keeps you turning the pages. I enjoyed the story and learned many new things that I didn't know before reading the book. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in cars, corporations, or history.
June 21, 2015
I learned a lot from this book. Not just about GM, but about the early beginnings of the automotive era.
I have read so much from the ford camp it was good getting the competitor's point of view. The narrator had an "older voice" that was pleasant and fit the role.
The author had a soft spot for Billy Durant and really spent time on his miracles more so than on his failures. I found myself cheering for the underdog Billy.
Well written and well narrated, I wanted more.
I have read so much from the ford camp it was good getting the competitor's point of view. The narrator had an "older voice" that was pleasant and fit the role.
The author had a soft spot for Billy Durant and really spent time on his miracles more so than on his failures. I found myself cheering for the underdog Billy.
Well written and well narrated, I wanted more.
October 8, 2009
Even if you don't care about automobiles or the industry itself; this is a fascinating read. Focused on the backgrounds and personalities of two of the industry giants, Alfred P. Sloan and William Durant. Billy Durant, the eccentric, throw caution to the wind, no risk is too great, founder of the original GM; and Alfred Sloan, the businessman's businessman.
December 31, 2012
Very fascinating read. The automative boom around the turn of the last century was a lot like the tech boom of this century. There are a lot of lessons in this book. Read it to avoid repeating history.
September 28, 2013
Finally a book that speaks about Billy side of things. Very interesting and gives a good brief on the industry that redefined world economy. Very interesting book. Covers everyone from cryslar to ford to leylands to everyone .
March 19, 2021
As Far How it was managed, About Billy Durant and How Brilliant he was, and Alfred Sloan As well(Of Course how Shrewd he was and straight to the point). The Battles, The Stuffy Bankers who tried to Control GM,(JPMorgan), The Duponts, etc. Must Read!
October 31, 2011
Good overview of GM's founding, and some interesting characters. Light read.
December 19, 2013
This is a fairly interesting book about the beginnings of General Motors and the automotive industry. I found it curiously enjoyable and learned things that I did not know.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews