Roger B. Smith

Roger Bonham Smith July 12 1925 November 29 2007 was the chairman and CEO of General Motors Corporation from 1981 to 1990 and is widely known as the main subject of Michael Moores 1989 documentary film Roger Me Smith seemed to be the last of the oldline GM chairmen a conservative anonymous bureaucrat resisting change However propelled by industry and market conditions Smith oversaw some of the most fundamental changes in GMs history When Smith took over GM it was reeling from its first annual loss since the early 1920s Its reputation had been tarnished by lawsuits persistent quality problems bad labor relations public protests over the installation of Chevrolet engines in Oldsmobiles and by a poorly designed diesel engine GM was also losing market share to foreign automakers for the first time Deciding that GM needed to completely change its structure in order to be competitive Smith instituted a sweeping transformation Initiatives included divisional consolidation forming strategic joint ventures with Japanese and Korean automakers launching the Saturn division investing heavily in technological automation and robotics and attempting to rid the company of its riskaverse bureaucracy However Smiths farreaching goals proved too ambitious to be implemented effectively in the face of the companys resistant corporate culture Despite Smiths vision he was unable to successfully integrate GMs major acquisitions and failed to tackle the root causes of GMs fundamental problems A controversial figure widely associated with GMs decline Smiths tenure is commonly viewed as a failure as GMs share of the US market fell from 46 to 35 and the company lapsed close to bankruptcy during the early 1990s recession Smith and his legacy remain subjects of considerable interest and debate among automotive writers and historians