18 quotes
It is astonishing what you can do when you have a lot of energy, ambition and plenty of ignorance.
Growth and progress are related, for there is no resting place for an enterprise in a competitive economy.
Let me deal here with what General Motors includes and with the responsibility that rests on its management.
Take my assets — but leave me my organization and in five years I'll have it all back.
Only in more production and in new production can the American standard of living be increased and the economy be sound.
Forbes, Forbes Incorporated (1959)
Bedside manners are no substitute for the right diagnosis.
The Almanac of Quotable Quotes from 1990 (1991)
The industry has not grown much during the past three or four years. It is practically stabilized at the present [1927]. What has taken place is a shift from one manufacturer to another.
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)
General Motors Building (Cadillac Place), completed in 1922.
Competition is the final price determinant and competitive prices may result in profits which force you to accept a rate of return less than you hoped for, or for that matter to accept temporary losses.
Get the facts. Recognize the equities of all concerned. Realize the necessity of doing a better job every day. Keep an open mind and work hard. The last is most important at all. There is no short cut.
Alfred P. Sloan in: The Magazine of Wall Street (1927)
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?
I am sure we all realize that this struggle that is going on though the World is really nothing more or less than a conflict between two opposing technocracies manifesting itself to the capitalization of economic resources and products and all that sort of thing.
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)
Gentlemen, I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here. Then, I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until the next meeting to give ourselves time to develop disagreement, and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about.
Naturally. I like to see General Motors stock register a good price on the market, but that is just a matter of pride... What has counted with me is the true value of the property as a business return on investment.
Industry's responsibilities broaden. Its leaders must develop an enlightened and militant statesmanship, for progress in the solution of these problems is vital. If this responsibility is not assumed and discharged from within industry, it is bound to be superimposed from without.
The business of business is business.
Disputed