Many passionate American CEO's in office today like Lee Iacocca?

[SC Maintenance]

Really?

When is the last time you've been to a Wal-Mart?

The parking lots are the same - covered in gum, I will admit there are less waxed paper cups, bags of empty fast-food garbage and less loaded diapers at the cart return cages.

But the insides of the stores are the usual - nearly empty shelves, hundreds of feet of them usually. The place generally looks like Mogadishu around any holiday, which is about every 3 weeks now.

Seems like a decent CEO could clear some or most all of that up in 6-9 months IMO.

BTW, I go in one or two WMs to look at / buy fishing tackle mostly. At times I get bathroom toiletries, mostly shampoo and contact lens solution. I'll say the fishing stuff is probably the most organized area of the store, generally because the usual suspects don't venture to that far back corner where it is in the store I go to. The parking lot is also pretty clean on the non-grocery side at the store I go to.

This store is also in one of the highest household income areas in the US as far as WM Locations.

A lot of walmart shelves are stocked directly by the suppliers. My walmart is finally stocked properly after a long hiatus. FIshing tackle was one of the worst for a long time.

FWIW - I worked with a guy that was almost pro tour bass fisherman - he told me just buy black and white lure, if one isn't working try the other.

 

[4WD]

This just isn't true, or perhaps better said, this is much less true than it once was, certainly since the 70's or so, and then the tech boom really democratized corporate leadership more than any other recent event. Senior leaders of corporations come from all walks of life, but I agree that some circumstances and upbringings do provide an advantage but at the end of the day CEO's and most senior corporate leaders are tops in their field no different than a professional athlete or craftsman, as Iacocca clearly was.

I work for a small multinational and report to our CEO, they are blue collar background I believe, and have been 1 or 2 levels removed from the CEO for the past ~20 years of my career, and I am a 'tenement rat'. Both my Wife and I are SLT, Senior Staff, "C-suite" or whatever you want to call it and no one we deal with are "do-nothings" and only a few are Ivy league. Her CEO also has a modest background. The Founder and CEO of the firm I cut my teeth in came from a broken home, and eventually became an Ambassador. He is one of my few hero's.

I've had the honor and opportunity to work for and most importantly learn from some very talented folks and they all had a few common qualities; they worked hard and smart, had vision, and all had the uncanny ability to digest and cull through huge amounts of data while quickly seizing on key elements. Most CEO's are rock stars....

There are plenty good ones - our CEO is an electrical engineer who went back for his MBA …

 

[4WD]

A lot of walmart shelves are stocked directly by the suppliers. My walmart is finally stocked properly after a long hiatus. FIshing tackle was one of the worst for a long time.

FWIW - I worked with a guy that was almost pro tour bass fisherman - he told me just buy black and white lure, if one isn't working try the other.

And red … he was missing 1/3 of the fish

 

[drtyler]

This just isn't true, or perhaps better said, this is much less true than it once was, certainly since the 70's or so, and then the tech boom really democratized corporate leadership more than any other recent event. Senior leaders of corporations come from all walks of life, but I agree that some circumstances and upbringings do provide an advantage but at the end of the day CEO's and most senior corporate leaders are tops in their field no different than a professional athlete or craftsman, as Iacocca clearly was.

I work for a small multinational and report to our CEO, they are blue collar background I believe, and have been 1 or 2 levels removed from the CEO for the past ~20 years of my career, and I am a 'tenement rat'. Both my Wife and I are SLT, Senior Staff, "C-suite" or whatever you want to call it and no one we deal with are "do-nothings" and only a few are Ivy league. Her CEO also has a modest background. The Founder and CEO of the firm I cut my teeth in came from a broken home, and eventually became an Ambassador. He is one of my few hero's.

I've had the honor and opportunity to work for and most importantly learn from some very talented folks and they all had a few common qualities; they worked hard and smart, had vision, and all had the uncanny ability to digest and cull through huge amounts of data while quickly seizing on key elements. Most CEO's are rock stars....

The big company CEOs are the ones that make the news and get the golden parachutes, but we sometimes forget there are many small and medium size companies with exceptional CEO's and management.

 

[drtyler]

And red … he was missing 1/3 of the fish

Nah, those 1/3 are going for the chartreuse.

 

[4WD]

Nah, those 1/3 are going for the chartreuse.

Definitely in salt water … at least the tail color …

 

[loneryder]

Iacocca was a car guy - spent his entire career at car companies.

The majority of CEO's at this point are finance people. They talk to Wall Street. They know little about the company they "run" and jump mostly from company to company until they become CEO.. I presume there not all that way, but many are.

I worked for a Fortune 500 company out of college almost 30 years ago. The CEO had been with the company 35 years. He had been groomed for the job no doubt - came from the right family, etc. But he had worked many real jobs in the company. Doubt that happens anymore.

Musk, for all he is hated here, is a visionary. Really the only one I can think of currently.

That no longer happens. And that's a big problem in industry today.

 

[gfh77665]

I bought my wife a 1988 K car. I think they (like most any brand) had worked a few bugs out from the first years version. It treated us very well. All I can remember is an electronic module going out, thats all. No sagging doors or anything else.

An illegle drunk hit her and totaled it. We liked the car so much we bought another newer one to replace it.

 

[PandaBear]

There are a few of them here and there over the years. Currently I think Lisa Su of AMD would be the closest. She steered AMD from a near bankrupt company to a company that's #2 in both GPU and CPU, and beat Intel in market value.

Whether Elon Musk is "not a finance guy" is up to debate but you are going on a roller coaster ride with him as an investor and employee. Jeff Bezos is a finance guy with engineering background so that probably doesn't match the "passion" part other than having some engineering background to not run his company into a leveraged collapse.

I have high hope for Pat Gelsinger of Intel, he could have been another Andy Groove had he succeed him as the next next CEO, but the company's rot is quite deep and it would need at least 5-10 years to steer it back to its former glory if ever. As you can see the last 2 3 finance CEOs really screwed it up.

 

[Hohn]

The K-platform, while in the end maybe a lousy implementation - was a major concept shift from most US auto manufacturing in that it was modular - so the K-car and first Chrysler Mini-van were related, among other models. There was no minivan prior. The K-car was the starting point for it, the minivan, the lebaron, etc.

It did more than prolong Chrysler for a few years, it incentivized Mercedes to buy them in 1998. Unfortunately the Chrysler / US auto manufacturing culture was too hard headed to take the opportunity for improvement - so even Benz couldn't fix them.

Ford's refusal to accept Iaccoca's idea for a minivan was I believe an aspect of his departure for Chrysler.

 

[BHopkins]

@GON, thanks for starting this discussion. Reading through many of the comments here has given me a little bit of reflection on some of the better known CEO's in my time, but more particularly, recently.

I guess my read of Lee Iacocca was different. I always saw him as loving the spotlight. At least, that was the impression he left by being in so many of the Chrysler ads. I wonder if his motivation to push such a strong American made car theme, was not as much of his own commitment to it, but rather his read on what was important to the American people at the time. Wasn't this about the same time that the baseball, Chevrolet and apple pie ads were running? Maybe a few years later.

Many are going to disagree, but I get the impression that Mary Barra is passionate about making a difference for her company. She has made a huge difference in turning around GM, from near bankruptcy, to being very profitable. She doesn't seem to seek the limelight, although it does find her. I am sure that she is getting a very handsome compensation package, but except for only a very few exceptions, all CEO's are.

Elon an interesting one for me. Although he seems extremely passionate about Space X, Tesla, and to a lesser degree his other ventures such as The Boring Company, and he wants them all to succeed, I get the impression that his passion is more about his own legacy and fame, than it is making a difference. His outlandish salary is one of the factors that leads me to believe that Elon is in a competition with the other most wealthy and successful people in the world, constantly seeking to one up them. He wants all his ventures to succeed, because it reflects good on him.

 

[wings&wheels]

I have high hope for Pat Gelsinger of Intel...

One of the most brilliant execs I've ever met, and honestly seems like a very decent sort of guy.

 

[hrv]

He must think CNN is where the truth lies......

CNN covers all sides of the news...just in case one of them are correct...

 

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

In an honest effort to re-rail this thread again..... and I admit I de-railed it much with my opinion of many CEOs,

Let's try again- I think GON's intent or what I saw was his intent was this-

Are there some CEOs trying to use innovation, new/better ideas, better methods, attracting better customers to make their company successful versus being "all business" and using the accounting department to make it successful?






And does anyone think the Original K-Car front end looks exactly like a cartoon depiction of Iacocca?

 

[GON]

BH,

Thaks for the input and sharing your thoughts on Ms. Barra. I still cringe that GM makes a Corvette with all out passion, doesn't make a world-class entry-level sedan that can compete with a Corolla or Civic.

Looking at your reply and other replies in this thread, maybe I mis identified the issue of why a potential major shortages of passionate manufacturing CEOs in the US. Maybe the reason is the 401k?

Wonder if the transition from pensions to 401ks caused the lack of passionate/ driven manufacturing CEOs in the US. Private equity/ hedge funds, and the like seem to be wanting one thing and one thing only from Corps- immediate increase in stock price. These companies are not wholistically employee owened at the level they once were. These CEOs are reporting to Black Rock and the likes, not the shareholders, nor employees.

Maybe I missed the real issue- maybe the instant gratification of returns is the center of gravity on why US manufacturing leaders seem unpassionate in their products and services.

 

[alarmguy]

@GON,

... I get the impression that Mary Barra is passionate about making a difference for her company. She has made a huge difference in turning around GM, from near bankruptcy, to being very profitable. She doesn't seem to seek the limelight, although it does find her. I am sure that she is getting a very handsome compensation package, but except for only a very few exceptions, all CEO's are.

I agree and I was going to bring this up in my last post regarding Doug McMillon. I dont know as much about her, she is very well spoken and sincere in her goals. Being a USA automaker is NOT as easy task, yet they are doing well under her leadership and she admits to being frustrated about the stock price now that GM is doing so well.

 

[mk378]

That's not the word I would use. A lot of really bad decisions result from passion.

 

[andrew_j]

In an honest effort to re-rail this thread again..... and I admit I de-railed it much with my opinion of many CEOs,

Let's try again- I think GON's intent or what I saw was his intent was this-

Are there some CEOs trying to use innovation, new/better ideas, better methods, attracting better customers to make their company successful versus being "all business" and using the accounting department to make it successful?






And does anyone think the Original K-Car front end looks exactly like a cartoon depiction of Iacocca?

Glad you admitted to what you did injecting political junk into it. Thanks for Keeping it on topic.

 

[SC Maintenance]

BH,

Thaks for the input and sharing your thoughts on Ms. Barra. I still cringe that GM makes a Corvette with all out passion, doesn't make a world-class entry-level sedan that can compete with a Corolla or Civic.

Looking at your reply and other replies in this thread, maybe I mis identified the issue of why a potential major shortages of passionate manufacturing CEOs in the US. Maybe the reason is the 401k?

Wonder if the transition from pensions to 401ks caused the lack of passionate/ driven manufacturing CEOs in the US. Private equity/ hedge funds, and the like seem to be wanting one thing and one thing only from Corps- immediate increase in stock price. These companies are not wholistically employee owened at the level they once were. These CEOs are reporting to Black Rock and the likes, not the shareholders, nor employees.

Maybe I missed the real issue- maybe the instant gratification of returns is the center of gravity on why US manufacturing leaders seem unpassionate in their products and services.

Its not 401K's - although that maybe has had other distortions on the market. Mary Barra is the perfect example. Under her 10 year tenure GM stock is flat while the market is up 3X, earnings are flat, there only affordable car comes from Daewoo and she has loaded up the company with even more debt in order do stock buy backs - which we have discussed on this forum before.

So everyone is entitled to their opinion, but mine is she should have been shown the door 9 years ago. She wasn't for non-business reasons - mainly image.

 

[supton]

Looking at your reply and other replies in this thread, maybe I mis identified the issue of why a potential major shortages of passionate manufacturing CEOs in the US. Maybe the reason is the 401k?

That is an interesting thought. I don’t have anything to say about it, but it sure seems like something to mull over.

To think about it from the other direction: I don’t have any loyalty to my employer. I take my 401k when I change jobs and continue to dump into my retirement.

So the workplace becomes just a place to make money. Nothing personal, if someone gets screwed in the process.