Lido Anthony Iacocca / 1924–2019 / Pennsylvania, USA / Corporate Executive, Developer of the Ford Mustang, CEO of Chrysler Corporation
Automobile Industry
Safety doesn’t sell.
Reported by Mark Dowie in “Pinto Madness,” Mother Jones, September/October, 1977; accessible at motherjones.com.
Business Philosophy
In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. People come first. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
If I had to sum up in one word the qualities that make a good manager, I’d say that it all comes down to decisiveness.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
I began by reducing my own salary to $ 1.00 a year. Leadership means setting an example. When you find yourself in a position of leadership, people follow your every move. I don’t mean they invade your privacy, although there’s some of that, too. But when the leader talks, people listen. And when the leader acts, people watch. So you have to be careful about everything you say and everything you do.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
You can aim at a duck and get it in your sights, but the duck is always moving. In order to hit the duck, you have to move your gun. But a committee faced with a major decision can’t always move as quickly as the events it’s trying to respond to. By the time the committee is ready to shoot, the duck has flown away.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
By their very nature, financial analysts tend to be defensive, conservative, and pessimistic. On the other side of the fence are the guys in sales and marketing—aggressive, speculative, and optimistic. They’re always saying, “Let’s do it,” while the bean counters are always cautioning you on why you shouldn’t do it. In any company you need both sides of the equation, because the natural tension between the two groups creates its own system of checks and balances.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. People come first. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
Chrysler
Re: Chrysler’s filing of bankruptcy:
This is a sad day for me. It pains me to see my old company, which has meant so much to America, on the ropes. But Chrysler has been in trouble before, and we got through it, and I believe they can do it again. . . . Let’s face it, if your car breaks down, you’re not going to take it to the White House to get fixed. But, if your company breaks down, you’ve got to go to the experts on the ground, not the bureaucrats.
Reported by Julie Halpert in “Lee Iacocca on Chrysler’s Bankruptcy,” newsweek.com, April 29, 2009.
But one thing was perfectly clear: John (Riccardo) was sacrificing himself to save the company. He was over his head and he knew it. Although it meant the end of his own career, he bent over backward to make sure that the transition would go as smoothly as possible. He blew himself out of the water to bring Chrysler back to life. And that is the test of a real hero.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
Energy
We were on a joyride, on free energy almost. . . . It seems to me we need something like the Manhattan Project. We need some urgency saying, “Here’s what we should be doing. We’ve got to get off fossil fuels.”
Interview, “Iacocca Says Detroit is Living in the Past,” Morning Edition, npr.org, April 26, 2007.
Ford
But [Ford General Manager Robert S.] McNamara knew more than the actual facts—he also knew the hypothetical ones. When you talked with him, you realized that he had already played out in his head the relevant details for every conceivable option and scenario.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
“The trouble with you, Phil [Ford CEO Philip Caldwell], is that you went to Harvard, where they taught you not to take any action until you’ve got all the facts. You’ve got ninety-five percent of them, but it’s going to take you another six months to get that last five percent. And by the time you do, your facts will be out of date because the market has moved on you. That’s what life is all about—timing.”
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
Iacocca on Iacocca
I always kept in mind my father’s warning: “If he’s bigger than you are, don’t fight back. Use your head instead of your fists.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
Although I was never a candidate, I learned a lot from all the presidential talk. Shortly after the whole business began, I was having a conversation with a guy in advertising. He said something interesting: “I’ve decided why everybody talks about you as a presidential candidate. It’s very simple. They don’t believe anybody anymore. You talk to them and you make them believe that you stand for something and then you pursue it. You don’t bullshit them, and the American public has been bullshitted too often.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
. . . after reaching the presidency I experienced a certain letdown. I had spent years climbing the mountain. When I finally made it to the top, I started to wonder why I had been in such a hurry to get there.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
You can go a long way with some integrity.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
Philosophy of Life
Get all the education you can then go out and do something—do anything.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
It’s a good thing God doesn’t let you look a year or two into the future, or you might be sorely tempted to shoot yourself. But He’s a charitable Lord: He only lets you see one day at a time. When times get tough, there’s no choice except to take a deep breath, carry on, and do the best you can.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
It looks bad right now, but remember, this too shall pass.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
Mistakes are a part of life; you can’t avoid them. All you can hope is that they won’t be too expensive and that you don’t make the same mistake twice.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
No matter what you’ve done for yourself or for humanity, if you can’t look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
I learned about the strength you can get from a close family life. I learned to keep going, even in bad times. I learned not to despair, even when my world was falling apart. I learned that there are no free lunches. And I learned the value of hard work.
Lee Iacocca, with William Novak, Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography (1986).
Politics and Economics
We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.” Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic.
Lee Iacocca, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? (2007).
Why don’t we pass a law that says when you borrow money to buy somebody else and cannibalize him, the interest payments on those loans are not deductible? That would get the excesses out of the system pretty fast. Right now, if you want to buy up a competitor, generally you can’t. That would violate the antitrust laws. But if you want to buy a company that does something else entirely, that’s okay. Where’s the sense in that?
Lee Iacocca, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? (2007).
But I do think that our national leadership consists of too many lawyers and not enough people from business. I’d like to see a system where we brought in twenty top managers to run the business side of the country and maybe even paid them $1 million a year, tax-free. That would be a real incentive, and then we’d see a lot more talented people interested in public life.
Lee Iacocca, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? (2007).
It seems that in the United States the one thing you can count on is that even during a depression, the rich get richer.
Lee Iacocca, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? (2007).