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PCB007-Aug2020

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22 PCB007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2020 Feature by Michelle Te I-CONNECT007 Until Lee Iacocca emerged on the scene as CEO of Chrysler, the general image of the American CEO had been of a buttoned-down organization man who was essentially bland and characterless. Iacocca spent his company's profits on a lavish office, conducted regular in- terviews with national talk shows, and sold seven million copies of his autobiography [1] . Iacocca's strategy was to enhance the com- pany's image by enhancing his own. Yet, he seemed more intent on boosting his own great- ness than advancing the needs of his compa- ny. And while Lee Iacocca's flashy image ap- proach worked for a while, it failed to sustain the company's profitability [1] . In the book Success Mindsets [1] , author Ryan Gottfredson explained it this way: "From the outside, it was clear that he spent too much company time and resources on things that would enhance his public image—all in an effort to increase Chrysler's stock—and not enough time on what would make the compa- ny profitable in the long run…When Japanese automakers started taking over the American market, rather than seeking to improve Chrys- ler's cars, Iacocca worked with the Reagan ad- ministration to impose tariffs and quotas that would stop Japanese manufacturers." Quoting Jim Collins' Good to Great [2] , Gott- fredson also concluded, "While Iacocca was personally on the rise, his company was not. In the second half of his tenure, Chrysler's stock fell 31% behind the general market." It's I-Connect007 Survey on Leadership: More Important Now Than Ever

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