We learned that Lee Iacocca passed away. He was 94 and quite a personality in the automobile business:
Lido Anthony Iacocca, the automobile industry legend best known as “Lee,” died at the age of 94 on Tuesday morning, his family confirmed.
A child of Italian immigrants who grow up in humble conditions, Iacocca became one of the most powerful — and best known — executives in Detroit.
Iacocca rose to become president of Ford Motor in December 1970.
After being fired in a dispute with company heir Henry Ford II, Iacocca joined the then-struggling Chrysler.
Using both his business skills and ability to turn a phrase, he won federal loan guarantees that helped the automaker avoid a potential 1980 bankruptcy.
I remember all of the Chrysler episode and the book that won him fame in the 1980s.
Guess what book my dad gave me for Christmas one year in the 1980s? You guessed it! The Iacocca book.
In fact, I would have won many a bet predicting that every businessman that I visited in the late 1980s had a copy of Iacocca’s book on his desk. It became sort of a symbol of managerial awareness to read or show everyone that you had read his book.
Iacocca argued that the loan guarantees were necessary to compete with Japanese and European manufacturers who were supporting their industries. In the end, Iococca’s idea worked and led to more successes, including the minivans that changed the definition of “mom’s car”.
RIP Lee Iacocca.
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