William C. Durant
Co-founder 1908Background
William Crapo Durant was born in Boston in 1861 and raised in Flint, Michigan, where he became a successful carriage manufacturer before entering the automobile industry. His Durant-Dort Carriage Company was one of the largest carriage manufacturers in the United States by the early 1900s, generating the capital and manufacturing expertise that he would apply to his automotive ambitions. Durant was a salesman and promoter whose capacity for vision and deal-making consistently outpaced his ability to manage the organizations he created. He took operational control of Buick Motor Company in 1904, transformed it into one of America's best-selling cars, and used that success as the foundation for founding General Motors in 1908. He was removed from GM leadership twice, in 1910 and 1920, due to financial overextension and management challenges.
Role at General Motors Company
General Motors possesses one of the most chaotic, and consequential founding stories in American business history, built entirely through the aggressive, acquisitions of a single, effective, flawed visionary. The company was founded in 1908 in Flint, Michigan, by William C. 'Billy' Durant. Durant was a charismatic, successful manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages (he essentially controlled the largest carriage company in the US). When the automobile emerged, he initially hated them (calling them noisy and dangerous), but he possessed an effective realization: the automobile industry was fragmented, consisting of hundreds of tiny, undercapitalized companies building cars in small garages. Durant's foundational vision was consolidation. He believed that no single brand could satisfy every consumer, so a corporation should own a 'portfolio' of brands, offering 'a car for every purse and purpose.' In 1908, he used his wealth to take over the struggling Buick Motor Company. He then executed a very aggressive buying spree, rapidly acquiring Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Oakland (which later became Pontiac), folding them all into a new holding company he called 'General Motors.' However Durant was a but a terrible financial manager. He bought unrelated companies, took on heavy debt and was heavily involved in stock market speculation. Wall Street bankers famously ousted him from GM in 1910. In a dramatic, comeback, Durant partnered with Louis Chevrolet to build a new car company, used those profits to quietly buy up GM stock, and took back control of GM in 1916. He was ousted again, permanently, in 1920. While Alfred P. Sloan (the well-known CEO who succeeded him) is credited with actually bringing financial discipline to the company it was Billy Durant's chaotic, vision of a diversified automotive conglomerate that established the foundational architecture of the largest industrial corporation of the 20th century. William C. Durant was born in 1861.