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Curtice will not—and for reasons that are fundamental to the vitality of any large, competitive corporation. "If you stand still," says G.M. Chairman Sloan, now 80, "you go behind." Competition demands efficiency, and the whole efficient, smooth-running corporation could soon turn sour, as the Allison Division did, if it were forced to slow down to an artificial pace. Profits, in a modern corporation, have a function beyond providing earned surplus and dividends (and taxes). Under G.M.'s cost-accounting system, they are the key indicator of worth of divisional management, worth of product, personnel policy and planning.
Curtice refuses to talk in percentages of the car market—talks instead in terms of the expanding gross national product. "We have 3% of the G.N.P. now, and we won't have any less than 3% in 1956," he says. Translating into automobile figures, he predicts 1956 U.S. auto production at 7,060,000 (plus 1,190,000 trucks) —down about a million from 1955. G.M.'s share, if it holds its own, will be 3,500,000 cars.
Dawn Patrol. Curtice's genial competitor, Chrysler President Lester Lum ("Tex") Colbert, thinks he works about as hard as any man should, trying to get Chrysler back to 20% of the automobile market. "But most every Monday morning when I'm shaving out home in Bloomfield Hills," says Colbert, "I hear old Red Curtice's airplane flying in from Flint. And every Friday night when I'm home and tired and walking my dog, I hear Red Curtice flying home again." When he is in Michigan, Curtice spends most of his week nights not in his home in Flint but in the nine-room suite in the G.M. Building. On top of this, he is often on the road for days at a time. During the course of a year he probably glad-hands more people than the President of the U.S. But he likes it all—the headaches, the demanding hours, and the vast rewards.
In many ways he lives a life that is beyond the comprehension of most of his car owners. Platoons of subordinates jump when he twitches. Garages filled with gleaming limousines and beaming chauffeurs stand ready to transport him wherever he desires. A private 18-plane air force of multi-engined, red-white-and-blue airplanes is at his disposal. Private secretaries and public-relations men take care of bothersome detail, see to it that Cadillacs, hotel suites, restaurant tables and theater seats are there when and where he wants them. High-salaried assistants smooth his path, greet him wherever he arrives, order his drinks, fetch his newspapers.