Sixty to Zero : An Inside Look at the Collapse of General Motors- And the Detroit Auto Industry

by Alex Taylor III; Foreword by Mike Jackson

• ISBN13: 9780300171518
• ISBN10: 030017151X
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2011-04-26
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

The collapse of General Motors captured headlines in early 2009, but as Alex Taylor III writes in this in-depth dissection of the automaker's undoing, GM's was a meltdown forty years in the making. Drawing on more than thirty years of experience and insight as an automotive industry reporter, as well as personal relationships with many of the leading players, Taylor reveals the many missteps of GM and its competitors: a refusal to follow market cues and consumer trends; a lack of follow-through on major initiatives; and a history of hesitance, inaction, and failure to learn from mistakes. In the process, he provides lasting lessons for every executive who confronts the challenges of a changing marketplace and global competition. Yet Taylor resists condemning GM's leadership from the privileged view of hindsight. Instead, his account enables the reader to see GM's decline through the eyes of an insider, with the understanding that corporate decision-making at a company as large as General Motors isn't as simple as it may seem. Taylor's book serves as a marvelous case study of one of the United States' premier companies, of which every American quite literally now holds a share.

Author Biography

Alex Taylor III is a senior editor at Fortune magazine. He is a member of the International Motor Press Association and is on the jury for the North America Car of the Year Awards. Mike Jackson is the chairman and chief executive officer of AutoNation. Previously, he served as president and chief executive officer of Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
GM at the Peak	p. 13
Growing Up in the Car-Crazy Fifties	p. 23
Cracks in GM's Edifice	p. 33
Insecure Colossus: The Roger Smith Era	p. 53
Ford Speeds Up	p. 71
The Saturn Moonshot	p. 81
Lee Iacocca, Blemishes and All	p. 93
Bob Stempel and the Crisis of'92	p. 103
Jack Smith's Unfinished Revolution	p. 119
Bob Eaton's Big Score	p. 133
GM on Cruise Control	p. 145
Succession Battles at Ford	p. 159
Wagoner Takes Over	p. 169
Nasser, Ford, and Mulally	p. 179
The Legend of Lutz	p. 191
The Uneven Legacy of Lee	p. 201
GM's Inevitable Collapse	p. 211
The End of the Road	p. 225
Epilogue	p. 235
Index	p. 243
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