"What the hell, Forbes? Good god, if GM hadn't existed, nothing would have changed. Ford or Chrysler or AMC or whoever would have filled their shoes. Big deal."

"What the hell, Forbes? Good god, if GM hadn't existed, nothing would have changed. Ford or Chrysler or AMC or whoever would have filled their shoes. Big deal." That's a very ignorant statement. General Motors and Alfred Sloan had a massive impact on the way that organizations were designed and managed for over 50 years - they were the first to ever systematically design and execute a managed, decentralized organization of that magnitude. Peter Drucker's 1946 classic "Concept of the Corporation" was the first major study of a large corporation (GM) and a deep analysis of the implications that the new "society of organizations" would have on our culture, politics, and lives. Sloan's "My Years at General Motors" in 1964 was a management treatise that was blueprint through at least the early 80s. Others would have filled their shoes, but history would be tremendously different.