Harlow H. Curtice
Harlow H. Curtice was President of General Motors from 1952 to 1958. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1971. The number that makes him stand out the most is that he increased sales of Buick nearly 1,000 percent in the less than 10 years that he was head of General Motors. Curtice started out in the AC Spark Plug division of GM. Six years after being employed at AC, he became the President of the organization. As President, he expanded the number of products in their product line, which in turn helped to increase sales. This was impressive in itself because this increase actually occurred during the Great Depression. In 1933, Curtice was named President of Buick. At the start of his time at Buick, sales were incredibly slow, and people were starting to think the he was going to be the end of the organization. Curtice instead renegotiated dealer contracts and added 3 new models to Buick’s line of cars. By the end of his first year, Buick’s sales doubled and continued to increase up to World War II. 1948 is when Curtice went from Buick to GM. He started out as Vice President of a department and was named President in 1952. 1954 was another pivotal year in Curtice’s career as well. He made the decision to spend $1 billion dollars on expanding their manufacturing plants and factories. Parts of the expansion included a new facility in Warren, Michigan and even adding air condition as an option to their Corvette model. The timing of the announcement made it even more interesting. 1954 was a year with a weak and fragile economy and U.S. citizens were worried about the post-war boom ending. Curtice’s decision to invest this large amount of money into GM spread confidence to his employees and similarly the U.S. citizens which in turn even led to an increase of consumer spending on automobiles. The response to his decision was so positive the competitors like Ford and Chrysler decided to follow in Curtice’s footsteps. Soon after Curtice took over, GM became the first company to make over $1 billion dollars in profits within 1 year. Time Magazine recognized Curtice’s achievement by awarding him Time’s Man of the Year award in 1955. Curtice’s success peaked and he later retired in 1958. He is one of the GM CEOs that has had a pivotal role in shaping the company into what they are today.
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