Retired GM Executive Catches Leadership Tips from Little League

Mike Van Slyke, a former General Motors executive, learned from a Japanese Little League team that it is more important to have detailed, rigorous habits than to just tell workers that they need to produce more.

Van Slyke worked in various executive jobs for GM from 1965 to 2000, with some of his roles including plant manager and international engineer program manager. His specialty was time and people management.

“I was in charge of managing business and projects,” he said.

Van Slyke was the speaker at a Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Jan. 11, at Grace Church.

Van Slyke said one of the biggest challenges for companies is how to respond to market changes.

In 1989, he recalled that GM was envious of the stability and management of costs that Nissan and Toyota were having, so GM sent him to Japan to learn about their successful practices. But his management-changing epiphany came from a Little League team rather than the automobile companies.

He was in a small Japanese town. “It was like Paulden without the Dollar Store,” he said, which was met with a lot of laughter. Van Slyke came upon a Little League baseball team and started watching them. He was amazed by the rigorous physical training that the coaches put the young players through.

He noted this was in October and toward the end of the season, not the beginning of the season, when coaches are trying to whip their players into shape. The coaches brought out three sets of bases. They continually had the players practice diving into first base, second base and third base, repeatedly. This was teaching the players the importance of learning the fundamentals.

“This taught me that rather than telling workers we need to improve productivity, it’s better to break them into small groups to see how they can fundamentally improve,” he said.

Van Slyke, who says he is in the results business, emphasized that “good results come from doing things the right way.”

Van Slyke doesn’t know what future vehicles will look like, but he said as long as the industry has engineers, the vehicles will become more energy efficient. “There will be change because engineers see opportunities where others see problems.”

Van Slyke said recent consumer electronic shows give a glimpse of what future vehicles will do, with one car even changing colors. He said some future vehicles will use solar power instead of batteries, but this will mainly be for in-town vehicles.

He doesn’t see fossil fuels, or gas, for vehicles going away anytime soon, but it may not be to the degree that they are used today. He sees the use of electric vehicles continuing to grow.

“All the big players are too far invested for it to go away,” he said. “I expect some of our grandkids will drive electric vehicles.”

Van Slyke also expects the prices for electric vehicles to go down, just as handheld calculators cost a lot when they initially came out, but then dropped in price. He also expects charging stations for electric vehicles to become commonplace and to be offered at places like Walmart and Safeway.

“American ingenuity will be part of the marketplace,” he said.

Van Slyke, an engineer, earned his undergraduate degree from the GM Institute and his MBA from Central Michigan University.

Van Slyke, who moved to Chino Valley about five years ago, was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. He moved here because he didn’t want to shovel “that white stuff” anymore.

By Stan Bindell, QCBN

Photo by Stan Bindell: Ann Marie Szabo from Sparklight volunteered to join retired GM executive Mike Van Slyke in front of the room as he demonstrated some baseball lessons he learned from watching Japanese Little League.