Roger Smith (1927 - 2007)

[shetuck]

Former GM CEO Roger Smith passed away late last week.

I haven't seen anything posted on BP, so I'll go ahead and do it, fwiw, since Smith was born in Columbus (but grew up in Detroit and attended tSUN).

Smith was a controversial and interesting figure. Some of you may recall him as Michael Moore's antagonist in "Roger & Me".

For those of you who follow these sorts of thing, I wouldn't be surprised if the Economist does an obit on Smith in an upcoming issue.


New York Times

December 1, 2007

Roger B. Smith, 82, Ex-Chief of G.M., Dies

By MICHELINE MAYNARD

Roger B. Smith, the General Motors executive who tried to modernize the American automotive giant during the 1980s but instead became associated with its decline, died Thursday in suburban Detroit. He was 82.

Tom Wilkinson, a G.M. spokesman, said Mr. Smith died after a short illness. G.M. did not give the cause.

Mr. Smith, who was the company?s chairman and chief executive from 1981 to 1990, became widely known to filmgoers in 1989 as the involuntary focus of the satiric documentary ?Roger & Me,? which started Michael Moore?s career as a director.

Mr. Smith was ?almost a character in Greek tragedy, the great man with the tragic flaw,? said Marina von Neumann Whitman, who was a G.M. vice president during Mr. Smith?s tenure and is now a professor of business administration at the University of Michigan.

Douglas A. Fraser, who was president of the United Automobile Workers union while Mr. Smith was chief executive, said of him, ?He tried to change the corporation, but he couldn?t quite pull it off.?

Mr. Smith led G.M. during one of the most wrenching decades in the history of the company and the automobile industry. As the 1980s began, G.M. sat atop the automobile industry, as it had since the end of World War II, with 46 percent of American market share.

But by the time Mr. Smith retired, in 1990, G.M. held only 35 percent of the American market, with a lineup of look-alike automobiles blemished by poor quality. Customers were turning to Japanese companies and resurgent Detroit players like the Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Corporation.

Variously described as arrogant and casual in manner, with ruddy skin and a high-pitched voice, Mr. Smith remained a controversial figure in Detroit long after he had left the automotive scene.

?Roger Smith?s tenure was one of the darkest in General Motors? history, for customers, workers and for residents of G.M.?s factory towns,? the consumer advocate Ralph Nader said in 1995.

But G.M.?s current chief executive, Rick Wagoner, said yesterday that Mr. Smith ?knew that we have to accept change, understand change and learn to make it work for us.?

?Roger was truly a pioneer in the fast-moving global industry that we now take for granted,? Mr. Wagoner said.

Roger Bonham Smith was born July 12, 1925, in Columbus, Ohio, the son of E. Quimby Smith and Bess Obetz Smith, and moved to Detroit as a youngster. He attended high school in Detroit and received his undergraduate and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Michigan.

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Automotive News

Roger Smith led GM during turbulent times
Ex-CEO is recalled as mentor and unwilling star of 'Roger & Me'

Jamie LaReau

Automotive News | December 3, 2007 - 12:01 am EST
DETROIT ? In 1981, John Bergstrom applied to General Motors three times asking to start a car dealership. GM rejected his requests all three times for lack of capital. So one night he hand-wrote a letter to then-CEO Roger Smith saying, "Please give us a chance."

Just a few weeks later, Smith sent someone to Neenah, Wis., to talk with Bergstrom and help him get financing. "We opened our little store," Bergstrom recalls. "Roger came to our grand opening in September 1982."

Today, Bergstrom owns 25 dealerships, 13 of which are GM stores.

Smith's family called Bergstrom last week to tell him that his 82-year-old friend and mentor had died. Smith is survived by his wife of 53 years, Barbara; four children; and six grandchildren.

"We wouldn't be in the automotive business if it weren't for Roger Smith," Bergstrom says. "I will miss him. He's the one who gave us a chance."

Smith died here Thursday, Nov. 29, after a brief illness. He was GM's chairman and CEO from Jan. 1, 1981, until his retirement on July 31, 1990.

"He was a leader who knew that we have to accept change, understand change and learn to make it work for us," GM CEO Rick Wagoner said in a statement.

Smith, who was born in Columbus, Ohio, on July 12, 1925, directed the automaker during a revolutionary period in the industry. In the early 1980s, he restructured the company, integrating Fisher Body into GM.

cont'd...

Ward's

Remembering GM?s Roger B. Smith
By David C. Smith
WardsAuto.com, Dec 3, 2007 1:06 PM
Commentary

Roger Bonham Smith was not a CEO out of central casting.

Standing at medium height and with blond-reddish hair, a ruddy complexion and a rather high-pitched voice, he hardly fit the stereotype of a boardroom tycoon.

But that?s precisely what he was as chairman of General Motors Corp. from 1981-?90. He died at age 82 on Nov.30, and to the end remained silent about his 42-year GM career.

?I?m taking it to the grave,? he replied when repeatedly asked to tell of his time at GM.

Bright, warm with friends but tough on colleagues, Smith also was one of GM?s most controversial leaders. Few among his subordinates spoke reverently about him, and many privately branded him a tyrant.

Yet in heading what was then the world?s largest corporation based on annual revenues, he weathered some tumultuous times and took a series of bold steps into uncharted territory that those with less fortitude may never have taken ? for better or worse.

Four of those moves stand out: Launching Saturn as an entirely new company to compete against Japanese models; acquiring Electronic Data Systems (EDS) from fiery Ross Perot; purchasing Hughes Aircraft Co.; and tying in with Toyota Motor Corp. to build GM and Toyota cars at a GM plant in Fremont, CA.

But he also made questionable decisions that still haunt GM today. One was the 1984 reorganization designed to streamline the company but, with GM?s ingrained bureaucracy, had almost the opposite effect. Organization and operations charts were tossed aside and new ones redrawn, resulting in near chaos down the ranks.

Some GM old-timers say the ?reorg,? as they called it, set back GM?s core product development programs just when it needed to be paying much more attention to burgeoning competition.

Although Smith loved cars, he was not a ?car guy? in the traditional sense. His career was almost entirely on the financial side, and an underling who didn?t deliver a strong business case for his project would find it to be a no-go.

Given his reputation as a ?bean-counter,? it?s surprising that an engineer was named as his successor. Bob Stempel was no ordinary engineer, however. He was a ?car guy? with a string of technical accomplishments as he rose to executive vice president. But he was never cut out to be the financial leader of a corporation that for decades drew its CEOs from the financial side. As GM?s woes mounted not long after Smith retired, Stempel was forced out, and GM reverted to tradition by naming Jack Smith, a Roger Smith prot?g?, to CEO and, eventually, chairman.

Few who didn?t really know Roger Smith would be surprised to learn he had a keen sense of humor and a common touch. He once described a reporter he especially disliked as having a brain that ?wouldn?t fit the top of a common pin.?

And he liked to pique attention by slyly reminding reporters that he had a ?lulu? he was about to disclose.

cont'd...