Introduction
Lee Iacocca, formerly Lido Anthony Iacocca was born on October 25th, 1924 in Pennsylvania to Italian immigrants Nicola and Antoinette. He changed his name to Lee when he joined Ford because he felt that clients and contacts would familiarize themselves with Lee much easier.
Lee failed to be enlisted as a soldier for WWII because of his health condition, as he had a Rheumatic Fever, which he had suffered from since his childhood. The alternative he took was joining Lehigh University where he got a degree in engineering. He was then awarded a scholarship to Princeton for his masters, and he set aside Ford to pursue this. When he completed his masters in 1946, he joined Ford as a student engineer (Chin Para.3), where he lasted until July 1978 when a personal conflict drove Henry Ford II to fire him. By then, he was the president at Ford.
He joined Chrysler in November 1978 assuming the position of Chief Executive Officer. He then proceeded to pull Chrysler out of the disaster it was in a record five years and pay off his debtors and creditors seven years earlier. He became so popular then, and many people considered him a worthy presidential candidate. The book has invaluable information on leadership qualities and skills. Therefore, it would be very insightful for anybody seeking to succeed against odds. It talks of priorities, time management, integrity, and success.
However, it has been criticized widely for Iacocca’s derisive reference to Henry Ford II; many readers feel that he sounds more like a disgruntled former employee who is bitter at his boss. This has colored their view of the entire book, choosing to see it as a slanderous depiction of Ford II that is to avenge his sacking of Iacocca. Nevertheless, even those who have this opinion do acknowledge Iacocca’s knack for successful leadership.
The primary elements of Iacocca’s leadership style as expressed in his book
Iacocca’s love for work or work ethic is prevalent throughout his autobiography. He was always a hard worker, right from childhood, when he would transport people’s groceries for a tip, up until Chrysler where he worked so hard with only $1.00 a year to show for it. That leads to show that he was also very noble. He had mastered the art of sacrifice.
Every leader should be able to practice sacrifice, which is just self-restraint/discipline, in a bid to achieve a greater goal. Moreover, at the time, Iacocca needed his employees’ wage concessions to redeem Chrysler back to glory, and there was no way they were going to be charitable if he continued earning millions. This was a wise move on his part.
Iacocca’s ability to work with a team or to listen as much as he talked was the key to his leadership agenda. A good example is the Fairlane Committee, which was responsible for collecting research data on demographics. This information was then to be used to predict the nature of the future market and project their needs. It would then manufacture a vehicle that was guaranteed to satisfy those needs.
The result of Iacocca’s cooperation with Fairlane was the monumental Ford Mustang in the model year 1964. More than four hundred thousand vehicles of this make were sold that year alone, and soon other paraphernalia such as hats and key holders could be spotted everywhere in the country.
Adaptability to varying circumstances was another trait Iacocca possessed. For instance, he writes that when he was made President of the Ford Motor Company in 1970, he realized that he no longer needed to focus on marketing and sales; instead, his focus shifted to cutting costs and increasing profits. He, therefore, came up with a program called ‘Shuck The Losers’, where every departmental manager had three years to increase the profits of their department or be forced to sell out.
Another time, he needed to make a sales presentation in the South, and knowing how weary they were of strangers; he introduced himself as Iacocca Lee. With Lee as his surname, he fit right in with his audience. This man named ‘Decisiveness’ as the must-have quality of any successful manager. For instance, when he joined Chrysler as CEO, he soon laid off 31 of the former 32 executives when he realized that they needed to downsize (Chin Para. 3). He was also major in prioritization, time management, problem-solving, concentrating on important projects, and risk-taking as necessary ingredients for a successful business.
How family influences and adversity shaped his views
Iacocca was born to working-class parents who were Italian immigrants in America. His father Nicola was big on work, and he believed that America was a place where one could succeed. He went on to do just that, cutting a niche for his family in the competitive society through hard work. This hard work is what informs Iacocca’s work ethic. Iacocca’s materialistic inclination was probably a direct result of the Great Depression, which made him realize that disaster could strike when least expected.
Consequently, he made very conservative investments and sought to preserve whatever little resources he had, while saving up for future endeavors. This mentality led him to detest any kind of waste, be it food, clothing, or resources.
Being an Italian, he was subjected to ethnic discrimination in school, where he and two Jewish boys were treated very poorly by their classmates, even though they were top of the class. This taught him the importance of judging people by their contributions, abilities, and characters instead of paying attention to stereotypes about them or outrightly dismissing them based on their ethnicity, race, or nationality. He was later to appoint Gerald Greenwald as Vice President of Chrysler, the first Jew to hold such a high position in the automotive industry.
From the event of being fired by Henry Ford II after a lengthened power struggle and private personal conflict, Iacocca notes that he remembered his father telling him “that if when you die you can name five people as true friends, then that shows you led a great life” (Iacocca, and Novak 61).
He narrates how his daughter Lia called him from Tennis Camp in tears, after hearing it over the radio that he had been fired, and how a shy three months later, his wife, Mary McCleary had her first heart attack. He then goes ahead to explain the hardships his family went through at this crucial time when Ford and his executives had betrayed him, then bridges the story over to his re-emergence as CEO in Chrysler, Ford’s competition (Chin Para. 5). He got even with Ford when he introduced into the market a minivan. Ironically, he had pitched this idea to Ford, only to have it trashed by the chairperson. Minivans earned Chrysler a fortune.
His leadership experience in Ford, a successful motor company made him recognize Chrysler’s problems easily. He identified the lack of communication and teamwork that was prevalent at Chrysler and went ahead to solve these. He then laid off executives and got a loan from the government, humiliating as it was at the time. All these endeavors were critical in salvaging Chrysler from the verge of bankruptcy.
What I found valuable and why
The entire book was a goldmine in my opinion. Iacocca’s is a success story that teaches one how to make lemonade when presented with lemons in life. This icon managed to turn the least promising of situations into potential opportunities. He became a newsmaker, a ‘preferred’ presidential candidate, and a noble citizen all at once. As a leader, he was charming, full of integrity, knowledge, and courage. His is a success story. However, one thing in the book caught my attention.
It is on page 61 and has popularly been termed as “Iacocca’s ‘Kiss of Death’ line”. He writes; “Now there’s one phrase that I hate to see on any executive’s evaluation… ‘He has trouble getting along with other people.’ …I always think ‘He can’t get along with people? Then he has a real problem because that is all we have got around here. No dogs, no apes – only people” (Iacocca, and Novak 61). This and many more parts of the book contain Iacocca’s plea for management to work with people. Communication and teamwork are vital for this to happen, as is the rightful allocation of opportunities to the rightful personnel.
This can only be achieved through studying each person’s strengths and weaknesses, then assigning them responsibilities that will draw on their strengths, making them make profits for themselves, and the organization simultaneously. This passage is valuable to me because it applies to every situation in life, not only business or leadership. Even as an individual, success can only be achieved when one focuses on his strengths, to maximize on his potential while trying to strengthen his weaknesses.
If you choose a field that you are weak in, to try to alleviate yourself in life, the best you can do is bring yourself to the level of your other strengths. However, choosing to work on your strengths, while improving on your weaknesses, is guaranteed to propel you further in life than the first option. I enjoyed reading this book. I would thus encourage everybody to look into it for solutions to everyday problems.
Conclusion
Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography is a book worth reading. The book relates the life of Lido Anthony Iacocca and while doing this, it imparts priceless insight on how to handle various crises one may find himself/herself in during life. The book is a package, so nice for anyone seeking to become an effective leader: be it in an organization, family set-up, or at the community level. It touches on ethics, time management, prioritization, concentration, and decision-making. It imparts valuable lessons on risk-taking and Iacocca’s wisdom is evident throughout the literature.
Work cited
Chin, Wiley. Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography, 2005. Web.
Iacocca, Lee, and Novak, William. Iacocca: An Autobiography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.