Word: automen
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...remarkable strengths of General Motors Corp. is its ability to hang on to key men through a system based on tradition, hefty salaries, and stratospheric but delayed bonuses subject to costly forfeit if a man quits. Automen were understandably astonished two weeks ago when Semon Emil ("Bunkie") Knudsen, G.M.'s fourth-ranking officer, abruptly resigned as executive vice president and a company director. Even more stunning was last week's announcement that Knudsen had become the new president of Ford Motor Co., G.M.'s archrival in one of the toughest competitions private enterprise has yet produced...
...Knudsen worked for 106 G.M. plants before, at 43, he was made boss of the drooping Pontiac Division. His first move was to order styling changes on the 1957 model to rid Pontiac of its "grandma" image-something that few automen would have dared just 60 days away from volume production. Off came two pieces of chrome across the hood and trunk lid-no matter that his fa ther had introduced them in 1935. Next, Knudsen reached for what the youth of the day wanted. He brought out a 21 in. wider and flashier model to appeal to young drivers...
...strategy is to battle for the medium-priced market, which G.M. dominates with its Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles and Buicks. Obviously, Knudsen carries in his head much inside knowledge-from styling to engineering to marketing-of G.M.'s future plans. Nor can he erase them from his mind. But as automen quickly recognized, this was hardly what Henry Ford sought. What counts is the disciplined insight Ford most can use: Knudsen's ingrained intimacy with the concepts and techniques (from cost control to dealer organization) that have long made General Motors, by common consent of both friends and foes...
Still, the lasting damage is not likely to settle in production-automen are sticking by their bright and early predictions of a 9,000,000-car year-but in a surge of inflationary wage increases. With its staggering 7% annual increase in wages and benefits, the Ford settlement dwarfs the 4.9% won last year by the airline machinists, who effectively buried the Administration's once cherished 3.2% wage-price "guide-posts." Though the Administration has been strangely silent of late, it is now clear that another mark has been passed. Last August CEA's Ackley expressed the hope...
Haddon outlined 23 safety features that he proposes to see added to all '68 model cars. Automen have until Jan. 3, 1967 to make protests. The list, with or without amendments, will go into effect on Jan. 31. It seems unlikely that many objections will be made, since most of the innovations are already incorporated into '67 models, and Haddon dropped two original proposals-standard-height bumpers and rear-window defoggers-which caused earlier concern on the part of auto companies...