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Re: [ARSCLIST] GM Archive (was Vanguard Classics reappears in 2 cd sets)
I did some freelance work in the early seventies at GM Photographic at
their New Center facility in Detroit.
Not only did they not have an archive, but they could barely keep
track of the elements they had for the work in progress. The facility
was right of of the forties. There were still two Scully lathes, a
couple of Fairchild 1/4" reel-to-reel machines, and a forward-only
Westrex interlock re-recording system. When we did production work, it
was an Electro-Voice 668 mike on an aluminum pole and a Nagra III
recorder.
Their techniques were right out of the forties as well, which said a
lot about the general corporate culture of the time. I tried to
introduce a couple of improvements, but all I got for my grief was
"we've been doing it this way for 30 years, and see no reason to
change it now". While those guys are probably dead now, their attitude
is alive and well.
Scott D. Smith
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Fine" I ping'd GM's investor
relations and offered to GIVE them a digi-copy for their archives.
They replied there IS NO ARCHIVES. What could be more valuable to a
company that makes its bread from advertising a somewhat generic
product -- where the main point of difference is marketing -- than
an archive of marketing so today's attention-challenged marketers
might learn from past successes and mistakes? But, alas, very few
companies have any corporate archives. One big exception is
Coca-Cola, BTW, which has a paid corporate historian. If GM does
have an archive or a historian and the investor relations people --
to whom most random e-mails are funneled -- do not know about it,
then that's totally dysfunctional.