John Francis "Jack" Smith Jr. (born April 6, 1938) is an American businessman and executive who formerly served as COO in 1992, CEO from 1992 to 2000 and then chairman of the board of directors of General Motors from 1996 to 2003.
As CEO of GM, he undertook one of its most sweeping reorganizations, overturning a cumbersome and inefficient structure created in the 1920s by Alfred P. Sloan and left virtually unchanged since then.
Starting with purchasing in 1992 and ending with engineering in 2003, he brought together separate overlapping functions related to the various divisions that formed the company, while also expanding operations into Asia.
[1] In this transformation, which included terminating the Oldsmobile brand, over 90% of core management positions were eliminated,[citation needed] corporate decision-making became faster and easier, production efficiencies and quality improved by spreading the lean manufacturing Toyota Production System from NUMMI,[2] and, above all, the bottom line went from near-bankruptcy losses to decent profits.
[3] After he relinquished the CEO position in 2000 to his personally selected successor, Rick Wagoner, he continued on as chairman to see his plan fully executed.