Another industry titan has passed away.  This one almost ran for President. But, given his management style (evisceration, anyone?), his thin skin, his off-the-cuff remarks (this was before Twitter), that never happened.   Those were considered permanent impediments- until TheDonald.

As a matter of fact, Doug Fraser (then president of the UAW- United Auto Workers) declared 42 years ago that he could support Lee for the US Presidency, “except no business leader who never held elective office could ever win as U.S. president.”  Yeah, too bad that’s not true, any more, either.

Back in his day, it was the manufacturing executives that America (and the world) emulated.  Now, everyone knows the names of the tech leaders (even if they are dead) like Steve Jobs,  Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos.  But, not the head of GM, who happens to be a woman, Mary Barra. (A few decades ago, it was normal to hear that ““What is good for the country is good for General Motors—and vice versa.”   My how things change!)

Lee Iacocca was the only executive that managed to run two of the big three automakers.  (Nissan-Renault is a merger, so they don’t count, plus they are almost an also-ran in the grand scheme of automakers).  Back in the 1980’s, Lee was probably the most famous industrialist- even more so than Jack Welch!  (For you youngsters, Jack was the head of General Electric in its heyday- it owned TV networks, too.)

Lee was a visionary, and he managed to project his dreams upon America, capturing the post-World War II love affair with the automobile.   He became Vice-President of Ford at 36 (this position was under wunderkind Robert McNamara) and then President of Ford by 46- only to be fired 7 years later.  (The proximate causes were the Pinto and its problems, the Arab oil embargo, and Henry Ford II’s enmity.  While his business marketing savvy was not questioned, his hypercritical micromanaging certainly was.)

While Iacocca was trained as an engineer, he found the engineer’s work to be tedious and lonely.  So, he jumped ship to marketing and sales.  Now, I don’t know much about his efforts at Ford (I was kind of young and obsessed with dialysis), I am pretty certain, like he did while at Chrysler, he got folks to overlook limitations and made people believe in him and his cars.)

One of his first ideas, after switching to marketing at Ford, was ’56 for 56′.  In 1956, to get folks in the Philly region to buy Fords, he sold the cars for 20% down- with three years of $56 a month payment.  Given that cars then ranged in price from $ 1850 to $ 2500, Ford made a killing on the lower priced vehicles, while offering zero interest loans on the higher priced cars.  But, the Philly district led the US in sales of cars- and Iacocca was promoted to the national desk.

While Bob McNamara approached the Ford business as providing functional vehicles with an eye towards fuel efficiency, Iacocca recognized the youth movement (such as it was), that wanted flashier cars that caught the eye of the beholders.  And, that’s what led to the Mustang, the car he introduced at the World’s Fair in Fresh Meadows (Queens, NY).

Oh, and Iacocca was right.  In its first year, Mustang sold 418,812 cars- a record for Ford.  And, the Mustang yielded some $ 1.1 billion in profits for Ford.

He headed up Chrysler shortly after  Ford dumped him (“Don’t get mad, get even“), orchestrated a $ 1.2 billion bailout loan for the firm in 1983 (that was paid off in full 3 years later- and 7 years ahead of schedule).  Chrysler’s K-Cars and Minivans were all created under his watch, which made it possible for Chrysler to turn around its finances- from a $ 1.7 billion loss in 1980 to a $ 2.4 billion profit 14 years later in 1994.

Let us not forget that the titled quote above was pure Iacocca.  A better car?  Ford and GM had better quality control on their vehicles.  Most of the Japanese did.  What Iacocca offered was a promise- and a better warranty.  (Which meant you could get your car- eventually- to be better than the competition, even if it didn’t leave the showroom that way.  I can still remember moving from Ann Arbor to Charlottesville- and finding out that the plastic float in the carburetor got ‘gas-logged’ [unable to float above the fuel]- so manipulating Afton Mountain was difficult (since the carburetor failed to provide sufficient gas and stalled as the car climbed up .  Chrysler replaced the carburetor with a ‘mountain’ version, instead of the ‘Michigan’ version.)

(One of my firms over the years (1979-1993) was a car leasing company back then- and it was exclusively [with one exception] a Chrysler house.  Yes, I believed in Lee, too!)

That Chrysler turnaround was painful- factories were closed, tens of thousands of employees were jettisoned and he delayed payments to suppliers. (Ouch!  That hurt!).  Because he slashed executive salaries, he was able to negotiate concessions from the labor unions.  (Chrysler – until 1990 or so- was not a firm where the executives were making 100X or more that their average employees eked out.  As opposed to the other automakers.)

Iacocca also bought Maserati and American Motors.  Maserati was for the flash,  American Motors was for the Jeep product line.  I almost bought a Chrysler TC,  but I couldn’t figure out how to transport both my daughters in a two-seater.  And, Iacocca created the Grand Cherokee, the very first SUV,  another cash cow for Chrysler.

(Another aside- Lee headed up the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial commission.  Fixing the statue to last another 100 years, strip out the asbestos lining for safety [which is how I met Lee], making Ellis Island into a living museum- all finished in time for the centennial on 4 July 1986.)

He also backed Kirk Kerkorian’s attempt to take over Chrysler in 1995 (Lee was no longer part of Chrysler), which forced him to have to sue Chrysler for his $ 42KK in stock options.  (He only got ½, when all was said and done.)

But, that Kerkorian bid led to the rape of Chrysler.  First by Mercedes Benz, which stole the gems of Chrysler engineering,  and then by Cerberus Capital Management, which botched the company further.

At least Obama stripped the equity from Cerberus before transferring control of the firm to Fiat in 2009.  Where it still resides.