Word: bossing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...almost seems like Detroit's go-go days again. And some of the resonances from the old times seem ironic. "In many ways," reckons a member of the Ford family, "Iacocca and Henry Ford are alike." Iacocca, for instance, can be an unreasonably terrifying boss. Says one chewed-out executive: "He's vitriolic and explosive." Ford had Iacocca do his dirty work; former Chrysler executives say that Iacocca has relied on Gerald Greenwald, his vice chairman and suave heir apparent, to deliver the bad news. Iacocca's definition of management by consensus is revealing. "Consensus," he says, "is when...
Moreover, Iacocca likes getting his way in the world quickly and unambiguously. He is a bossy boss. Heads of corporations can fold whole departments, hire anybody they choose and, in Iacocca's phrase, shuck the losers. Presidents, on the other hand, are hemmed in, constrained by the Executive bureaucracy, checked and balanced by Congress. In the give and take of governing, Iacocca's virtues--frankness, boldness--might not serve him so well. "He's a man who wants his hands on all the levers," says White House Aide Craig Fuller, the Administration official friendliest with Iacocca. Could a President Iacocca...
...workers are saying he's great, it ain't no jive." One morning last November, 2,000 employees gathered at Chrysler's Sterling Heights, Mich., assembly plant for the ceremonial roll-out of Chrysler's new sports sedans. The workers chatted. They smoked cigarettes and fidgeted. Then, when their boss strode out, they got excited. A chant rose...
...grave. People who don't understand his anger don't know my father." Says a former Iacocca colleague: "He believes in reprisals for his enemies." In the book, Henry Ford is depicted as venal and mean, an almost unbelievably unappealing character. Iacocca asserts that his former boss was paranoid, vulgar, personally extravagant at company expense, cruel and sexist. Many former and current auto executives, including Iacocca's friends, think he was wrong to carry the vendetta so acidly into print...
Murphy hardly fits the image of a tough boss. Friends describe him as generous and very shy. He is a devout Catholic and an eternal optimist whose most striking executive quality is said to be his ability to instill self- confidence in his managers. But even Murphy admits to having some trepidation when he considered the prospect of taking over a major network. On the day before he signed the agreement to buy ABC, he stopped for inspiration at another famous institution across the street from his office: St. Patrick's Cathedral...