Car Guys vs. Bean Counters - Bob Lutz [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Preface
Chapter 1 - The Beginning
Chapter 2 - An Unstoppable Force
Chapter 3 - The Beginning of the End
Chapter 4 - A Failed “Culture of Excellence”
Chapter 5 - Ground Zero
Chapter 6 - “Here’s What We’re Going to Do First”
Chapter 7 - Tackling the 800-Pound Gorilla
Chapter 8 - Learning to Go Global
Chapter 9 - Chevrolet Volt
Chapter 10 - Meltdown and Rebirth
Chapter 11 - What’s with American Business Anyway?
Chapter 12 - Of Management Styles
Chapter 13 - If I Had Been CEO
Chapter 14 - And in Conclusion . . .
Acknowledgements
Index
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First published in 2011 by Portfolio / Penguin,
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Copyright © Bob Lutz, 2011 All rights reserved
Materials from GM Media Archive. Used with permission of General Motors LLC.
Notes by Jack Hazen. Used with permission of Jack Hazen.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Lutz, Robert A.
Car guys vs. bean counters : the battle for the soul of American business / Bob Lutz. p. cm.
Includes index.
eISBN : 978-1-101-51602-7
1. Automobile industry and trade—United States. 2. New products—United States.
I. Title. II. Title: Car guys versus bean counters.
HD9710.U52L88 2011
338.7’6292220973—dc22 2011010720
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This book is dedicated to the hardworking men and women, at all levels, hourly and salaried, in the domestic U.S. automobile industry. The problems, mostly, were not your fault!
Preface
IT WAS IN 1979 IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. I HAD JUST BEEN ELEVATED TO president of Ford Europe and was conducting my first monthly quality meeting.
Ford’s quality was about average for Europe at the time, but we were having a major problem with our UK-built four-cylinder engines: camshafts (an essential part that controls the valves) were wearing out at a totally unacceptable rate. Some camshafts failed after as little as 10,000 miles, few lasted more than 15,000 miles, and the bulk of the repeat failures occurred soon after the expiration of the then-prevalent 12,000-mile warranty.
I asked what we were going to do to achieve industry-standard durability