Re: The Sudden End of the Detroit Packards

Posted by Tim Cole On 2014/1/24 17:41:48

I bought the Ward book, read it, and found it so dreadful I threw it in the trash. It served its purpose - royalties.

That business schools would consider it worthy says more about the decline of education than the Packard Motorcar Company.

I agree with Turnquist that the stock market crash ushered in a black swan event for companies like Packard the same way JFK's hatless hairstyle was the end of haberdashery. Sometimes the world changes in ways reasonable men cannot be expected to anticipate.

Packard's financial condition peaked in 1929. They did a pretty good job hanging on. They paid their bills, paid off the creditors, and closed without a bailout.

The Ward book never mentions how precarious Cadillac's position was in 1933-35. All it does is talk nonsense about Harley Earl with a dash of religious quackery thrown in for commercial appeal.