Billy, Alfred, and General Motors - by William Pelfrey (Paperback)

About the 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 portraits of the legends of the golden age of the automobile.

Book Synopsis

This book 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 changes in business, industry, politics, and culture.

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.

In Billy, Alfred, and General Motors, business leaders and history buffs alike will discover:

• timeless lessons,
• cautionary tales,
• and motivational inspiration.

The book includes vivid, warts-and-all portraits of the legends of the golden age of the automobile, from 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.

Review Quotes

..".easy to read and extremely well researched."

-World Business Review

"entertaining and instructive... masterfully tells about GM's past and... helps explain what recently went wrong at the company."

-Washington Post

"Business Times (New Haven, CT): ""Through the lens of history at its most gripping, this book reveals why American business needs both intuitive, risk-taking Billys and logical, bottom-line conscious Alfreds.""

ForeWord: ""The author tells an amazing story, previously largely untold...this is an illuminating, yet little known saga of the clash between eternal dreamers, inventors, tinkerers, and salesmen at the dawn of the twentieth century."""

"Pelfrey's work is both entertaining and instructive...[the] book does not predict GM's future. But it masterfully tells about GM's past and, in doing so, helps explain what recently went wrong at the company."

-Washington Post

"This fresh look at early GM is timely and interesting."

-Corp! (Detroit)

About the Author

William Pelfrey (Beverly Hills, MI) spent 15 years at General Motors Corp., most recently as Director of Executive Communications. A former journalist, he reported from Vietnam, Appalachia, and Pakistan for The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, and The New Republic . His first book, The Big V, won him a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.