AUTOMOTIVE MANAGER

Management Science.

Alfred P. Sloan Jr. was unlike most of the other early auto executives in that he had a university education. He had earned an engineering degree at MIT, but if he had attended the school in more recent years he would probably have majored in management science, an academic discipline that did not exist in his day. During his long career Sloan became the guru of industrial management, and he transformed GM into what was generally regarded as the best-managed corporation in the nation. Dozens of college professors and graduate students have written books, dissertations, and professional papers on the Sloan-imposed structure of the firm.

Sloan's Accomplishments.

Backed strongly by the du Ponts who had come to control the organization in the early 1920s, Sloan took over the management of GM after William C. Durant's departure. His contribution was twofold. First, he...