The Fifties

by David Halberstam

For a profound metamorphosis was taking place in America’s largest and biggest industrial companies: the rise of financial experts over product men. It was a sure sign that these companies, unconsciously at least, believed that they were de facto monopolies and faced no real competitive challenges anymore. Rather, their only real concern was to maximize the profits that now seemed to be permanently theirs and to drive the stock up. Bunkie Knudsen did not understand all of the ramifications of this, but he knew that something was terribly wrong. What begot greater performance on Wall Street did not necessarily mean greater performance in terms of autos; what was good for Wall Street was not, regrettably, always good for General Motors. When the meetings with Donner were over, Bunkie Knudsen could not go off and have lunch with any of his colleagues. Instead, he would go down to the Detroit Athletic Club and work out furiously to burn off his anger. Knudsen couldn’t have seen it then, but the issue he was so upset about was nothing less than the entire purpose of American industry, whether it was to make the best product possible or whether it was merely to make the maximum profit possible each year. The two, it turned out, were not mutually compatible—not by a long shot. All of this placed the corporation in jeopardy.