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In this article The TQM Magazine profiles the 1990 US Malcolm Baldrige winners. All four winners, Federal Express, Cadillac, IBM Rochester, and Wallace, have one common goal — increasing customer satisfaction.

For many BMW drivers, owning a BMW is about much more than merely owning a form of transport. The BMW name has become a symbol of quality, efficiency and engineering expertise which has inspired a loyal customer base throughout the world. BMW’s long‐standing marketing message has been simply “the ultimate driving machine”.

Cadillac introduced simultaneous engineering to help in the design and assembly of its cars. Not only has it increased the quality and time to market of its cars, but it has also created a whole new culture.

This paper seeks to use branding literature to understand the rise and fall of GM's brands.

The approach takes the form of presenting a case analysis using secondary sources covering GM's brands and products, managerial leadership, and market and financial performance throughout its 100‐year history.

During much of its first 50 years, GM was led by engineers who pioneered professional brand management, and through intelligent allocation of resources created one of the world's strongest portfolio of brands. Government anti‐trust hearings shifted GM to a cost‐cutting orientation during its second 50 years that had a negative impact on the GM brands and brought the current financial problems.

This is a case study of only one firm, but parallels are drawn with other firms that have had similar brand issues.

Firms with multiple brands need top management leadership to ensure that each brand has a unique mission with minimal overlap and adequate resources for product development, innovation, and communications to achieve its mission. If the mission or resources disappear, non‐core brands need to be terminated. Governments that wish to support well managed firms with strong brands need to be careful in using anti‐trust actions, and should not force firms to make products that are not desired by customers.

The paper takes a novel approach to evaluating the current state of General Motors by examining the factors that led to chronic mismanagement of its brands, which in turn has reduced brand equity, market share, and profits, and that have magnified GM's problems with labor and legacy costs, productivity, and product mix.

In 1921, Alfred P. Sloan developed an extensive repositioning strategy that was instrumental to General Motors' success over the decades that followed. This paper aims to provide a review of the development and evolution of this strategy and how the later deviation from this strategy was responsible for the company's marketplace decline and eventual bankruptcy.

The paper reviews the historical 1921 repositioning strategy developed by Sloan and the specific models and price levels that were a part of this strategy. These price levels are then examined over the following decades to determine when and how this strategy was modified over time.

The findings indicate that although Sloan developed a brilliant strategy at the time of its inception, General Motors has over time deviated from its own historic and successful repositioning strategy. It is demonstrated that the deviation from the 1921 strategy has contributed to the decline in General Motors' market share and their bankruptcy in 2009. In addition, the 1921 strategy is compared to those of successful 21st century competition.

The research provides the reader with a historical review and analysis of the Sloan strategy and provides evidence that a historically successful marketing strategy can be applicable in other time periods for the company that developed it and for other competitors that make use of a similar strategy.

UNTIL now, there has never been anything like it in the history of automobile manufacturing and commercial aviation: as of fall 1986, bodies for a new Cadillac model will be built in Italy, then flown to the United States where the cars will go through final assembly and are made ready for distribution. Lufthansa German Airlines is involved in this unusual concept in logistics. This new undertaking is one reason it acquired its third Boeing 747 freighter.

Case studies of four important automobile firms are used to understand how the performance of both diversifying and new entrants into the automobile industry was conditioned by their pre-entry experience. Various conjectures based on the four firms are then tested using a unique data source on the pre-entry backgrounds of all entrants into the automobile industry from the commercial inception of the industry in 1895 through 1966. In addition to analyzing the types of pre-entry experiences that affected the longevity of entrants, the analysis also focuses on the conduits by which pre-entry experience influenced the performance of entrants and the extent to which pre-entry experience had enduring effects.

GENERAL REFERENCE ‐ Encyclopedias Shapiro, Max S. THE CADILLAC MODERN ENCYCLOPEDIA. New York, Cadillac, 1973. (Dist. by Derbi books). 1954pp. cloth. $24.95. ISBN 0–87445–0004. LC 73–81377.

AAR CORP. announced recently that its AAR Cadillac Manufacturing unit has been awarded a contract for the overhaul and repair of cargo pallets by the U.S. Air Force. The contract, including options, has an approximate value of $50 million.

This paper is the second from a series of three, addressing human resource practices using best practice examples. The analysis covered is based on the experiences of organizations that have won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) in the USA. The sub‐criteria covered in this benchmarking comparative analysis covers the following areas: human resource planning and management; employee involvement; employee education and training; employee performance and recognition; employee wellbeing and satisfaction. The paper concludes by reflecting on the likely implications for health‐care professionals working in the human resource field.