Roger Smith (manager)

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Roger Bonham Smith (born July 12, 1925 in Columbus , Ohio , † November 29, 2007 in Detroit , Michigan ) was an American manager and CEO of General Motors (GM).

Career

After attending high school in Detroit , Smith studied business administration at the University of Michigan and completed an MBA . During the Second World War he served in the US Navy , after which he began his professional life at GM and made a career there.

Smith became CEO of GM in 1981 and modernized the company with a series of profound measures. All of these restructurings were unable to regain the lost market share, but they at least helped to reconnect with the market leaders in the world market.

So he invested in so-called "new technologies", which at that time were primarily understood to mean robotics and information and communication technologies. To do this, he bought Hughes Electronics and Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and had the first fully automated automobile factory built for the Saturn project.

He agreed a joint venture with Toyota in order to be able to manufacture small cars in California as well.

In the late 1980s, he moved several GM plants, including the largest in Flint , from the USA in order to be able to produce more cheaply in Mexico . This is what Michael Moore's film Roger & Me is about , in which Smith is portrayed as the epitome of the industrial decline of the USA.

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personal data
SURNAME Smith, Roger
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smith, Roger Bonham (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US CEO of General Motors
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Columbus (Ohio)
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 2007
Place of death Detroit