William C. Durant (December 8, 1861-March 18, 1947) Photo from gmheritagecenter.com

William “Billy” Durant is acknowledged as one of the geniuses of American industry and a pioneer in the automobile industry. Durant’s vision of creating a system of multi-brand holding companies with different lines of cars led him to found General Motors with Frederic L. Smith, and later co-found Chevrolet with Louis Chevrolet.

Thriving on converting any challenge into an opportunity, Durant took charge of a failing Buick Motor Company in 1904, and by 1908 he had made it the nation’s largest automobile producer, with 8,487 units manufactured that year. His ever-optimistic expectation of economic progress led Durant to incorporate General Motors Company with Buick as its foundation on September 16, 1908. Relying primarily on stock purchases, he added Olds Motor Works, Oakland and Cadillac to the GM company.

Durant battled for a few years to control GM, buying and acquiring several different companies as he progressed. Durant arranged to buy Ford in 1909, but was unable to secure the loan to complete the deal. General Motors dismissed Durant. He immediately began to create another holding company like GM with several brands offering different lines of cars. Durant started by taking on the Little Car Company. Shortly thereafter, He joined forces with Louis Chevrolet in 1911 to form Chevrolet Motor Cars.

William C. Durant and wife Catherine. Photo from www.wikipedia.org

Durant wanted to compete directly with the popular Ford Model T cars while Chevrolet wanted to create upscale cars worthy of his family name. This disagreement led to Durant buying Chevrolet’s shares in the company. Durant began to buy shares of his former company, General Motors, along with a wealthy investing friend. Finally buying enough shares to take back control of GM, Durant became the company’s president again in 1916.

During his presidency from 1916–1920, Durant brought the Chevrolet product line into the corporation in 1919, as well as Fisher Body. In 1920, he finally lost control of GM to the DuPont and McLaughlin share holders. Durant was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1996 and his methods are still studied in business schools around the world.