Word: chrysler
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...just plain dysfunctional." Cars were being designed once in the studio and then analyzed and reanalyzed by engineers and marketing experts and constantly redesigned to suit their needs along the way. "It's called paralysis by analysis," says Bryan Nesbitt, the designer who worked with Lutz at Chrysler to create that company's acclaimed PT Cruiser--and who was recruited by GM chief designer Wayne Cherry...
...back and forth between Europe and the U.S. He smashed his uncle's Ford coupe into a wall at age eight and walked away from a helicopter accident in 1991. He started at GM in 1960, cruised through BMW, lodged at Ford and then landed at Lee Iacocca's Chrysler in 1986. Lutz has become legendary in Detroit for his fearlessness, whether he's flying or driving fast or giving executives around him the straight talk. That's one reason he never became CEO of Ford or Chrysler--and why in 1999, despite his crucial role there, he was eased...
...while obviously important--will avail you little if you don't make popular products. And like many successful entertainment execs, he holds that focus groups will take you only so far: there's always an element of gut, and of risk. Lutz used his gut to propel a struggling Chrysler to greatness in the 1990s with a series of cars and trucks that initially raised eyebrows internally but have since became household names: the Viper, the Ram pickup, the PT Cruiser...
That's why Wagoner decided to hire Lutz. The two had never talked much until last May, when they found themselves seated together at a Harvard Business School function in Detroit. The GM CEO started grilling the former Chrysler vice chairman on "how to make cars people want to buy." Not too many days later, Wagoner asked if he could drop by Lutz's office for a 6 a.m. breakfast. (Lutz, not a morning person, nearly balked.) "I asked him how I could find a 50-year-old Bob Lutz," recalls Wagoner. "And it took about 13 seconds...
Lutz believes GM will be a turnaround story like Chrysler by the time he leaves in three years. "This gang has just the esprit de corps and even more capability than we had back then," he says. He acknowledges that once he left Chrysler, the company lost sight of its high-design, low-cost mission. "I realize now that what I have to do here is leave behind a system that works." Really, that's Rick Wagoner's job, but now he'll get a jump start from Bob Lutz...