The Corporation Nobody Knew: Bruce Barton, Alfred Sloan, and the Founding of the General Motors “Family”

Roland Marchand

Business History Review, 1991, vol. 65, issue 4, 825-875

Abstract: When Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., assumed the presidency of General Motors, the corporation was little known beyond Wall Street, which recognized GM simply as the holding company that controlled several nearly autonomous automakers and their subsidiaries. The following article describes how Sloan used the imagination and advertising talent of Bruce Barton to create a corporate image for GM, not only in the mind of the public, but among GM's own headquarters staff and division executives as well. Through the metaphor of the corporate “family,” Sloan and Barton finessed a potential public relations liability—the corporation's immense size—into an image of efficient cooperation and internal cohesion.

Date: 1991
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