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General Motors Case Analysis

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General Motors Case Analyses

I. History
General Motor was at one time, one of the world’s largest car and truck manufacturers reaching back more than a century in 1908, when William C. Durant founded General Motors Corporation. He brought together 25 independent car companies, which included Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Oakland, known as Pontiac. General motors was just a holding company for these independent car companies. Durant left the General Motors firm in 1911 and went on to be co-founder of the Chevrolet Motor Company with Louis Chevrolet. General Motors main competitor was Ford Motor Car Company, owned by Henry Ford, who developed the Model T car. In 1918, Chevrolet entered the General Motors fold as it became part of the Corporation. The first GM car was built in 1918 and it was the Chevrolet 490.
General Motors went through many phases of development from 1910-1929. GM’s new design over Ford’s Model T design, set the place for production, design and the marketing innovation of vehicles. GM’s first diversification took place when they added Chevrolet. They used its philosophy and strategy for marketing. Today, GM is one of the largest automakers in the world and the global headquarters is located in Detroit, MI.
By the 1930’s, GM began to start in aircraft design and manufacturing by buying Fokker Aircraft Corp of America and Berliner-Joyce Aircraft and merging them into General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation. 1948, GM divested North American Aviation as a public company and never had major interest in the aircraft manufacturing industry again. GM also bought Electro-Motive Corporation and its engine supplier Winton Engine and renaming them as General Motors Electro-Motive Division. Over the next 20 years, they built the diesel-powered locomotives. During, World War II, the diesel powered engines were used for American submarines and destroyer

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