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Happy 100th General Motors! - Page 2

General Motors Corp. was born as a talent merger in 1908. It blended Flint’s hard-working workforce; the early success of Buick (which had produced about 8,000 cars by then); and the vision and energy of sales-wizard Billy Durant. Durant consolidated more than a dozen car companies, including Cadillac, to create his “General Motors.” He was betting that the new company’s diversity and versatility could offer a range of products to meet consumer demands for cost, aesthetics, power, durability, comfort, quality and more.

Jamie Hresko ’87, GM’s vice president for Quality and Kettering’s GM key executive, said Durant gave GM a good beginning. Hresko provided a keynote address during the Flint GM Centennial.  “General Motors is one of America’s most fascinating business stories,” he said outside the Victorian building that still houses the Durant Dort Headquarters near Flint’s downtown.

“The forward progress and ongoing transformation of General Motors is more critical than ever,” he said.  Today, GM has about 8,000 employees at various Flint facilities, including truck, engine, stamping and tool and die operations. Additionally, GM’s Service and Parts Operation World Headquarters is based in Grand Blanc.   

“I want to focus on GM’s future, in particular turning your attention to the innovations in product design, technology and even corporate responsibility,” Hresko continued. GM’s global product development

network now includes 13 engineering centers and 11 design studios worldwide. “Our designers and engineers are leading product development the way they used to in the 1950s and 1960s, when GM design dominated the industry. Our latest products have convinced a lot of people that GM design has ‘got its mojo working once again,’” he added.

Hresko said warranty repairs have decreased by 40 percent over the past five years. He noted that the “Detroit Free Press” recently quoted a respected auto industry analyst, saying “The cars and trucks GM has introduced over the last three model years or so stand alongside the best the company did in the 1950s and 1960s, when GM was the peak of styling and innovation.”

“We expect the GM of 2008 and beyond to be a creative, innovative and responsive organization, seizing every opportunity for sustainable growth,” Hresko said. “We expect to meet the needs and exceed the expectations of a very demanding new world of consumers,” he concluded. 

GM’s 100th anniversary was Sept. 16, 2008.

GM invites its employees and retirees to build an oral history of GM at www.gmnext.com.