The failed engine program changes who owns the problem
Present a plausible explanation or expectation, show the observation or evidence gap it cannot account for, and return to the same question with a revised account that changes the later interpretation or application.
My Years with General Motors
Alfred P. Sloan Jr. · 22 weeksThe failed engine program changes who owns the problem
SHORT SOURCE EXCERPT“We have tried that and we have failed.”
Following its opening contrast between adopted principles and actual practice, the chapter reports engine defects, cancellation and recall. Sloan’s correspondence says that forcing the disputed project on divisions has failed; the proposed response places development responsibility in a separate operation under Kettering while freeing the divisions to pursue their other programs. The close identifies distinctions between corporate and divisional functions, and research and product engineering, as lessons of the episode.
The retained failure has a consequence for the explanatory model: sound principles do not implement themselves, and divided responsibility requires a different arrangement. The later committee chapter carries the coordination problem forward.
The source in context.
The administration’s early engine program exposes conflicts among research, divisions and senior management. Reported technical problems, recalls and disagreement lead Sloan to describe a changed allocation of responsibility and a renewed distinction between research and production work.
Open this chapterWhat this example supports
The retained failure has a consequence for the explanatory model: sound principles do not implement themselves, and divided responsibility requires a different arrangement. The later committee chapter carries the coordination problem forward.
Its limit
This is Sloan’s interpretation of a conflict in which he participated. The independent operation did not make the copper-cooled program a major success, and his account explicitly says he does not know why it eventually died out.
Source & edition
Alfred P. Sloan Jr., My Years with General Motors; supplied eNet Press digital edition, 2015, ISBN 978-1-61886-397-3; original copyright 1963; edited by John McDonald with Catharine Stevens.
Supplied text, lines 870–950. The short quotation is checked against the source.
The completed whole-source AI synthesis supplied candidate observations and the broad argument map. This Codex editorial pass checked original source headings, section boundaries, openings and selected argumentative contexts; inspected every retained example; checked the existing pattern dictionary and base examples; and rewrote or rejected nominations. It is a source-checked editorial pass, not a new independently adjudicated whole-book reading.
supplied eNet Press digital edition, 2015, ISBN 978-1-61886-397-3; original copyright 1963; edited by John McDonald with Catharine Stevens