Word: iacocca
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Eaton, by contrast, is a rumpled, low-key executive who arrives free of entangling alliances and is willing to wait nearly a year to take Iacocca's job. While Eaton was not the architect of GM's European turnaround, he maintained the momentum of that business after becoming president in 1988. Last year he helped make GM-Europe the most profitable car firm on the Continent, offering its $1.96 billion in earnings as an offset to GM's staggering $8.7 billion loss in North America. "Bob was a very high-energy, direct and pragmatic manager," notes John Smith, vice-president...
...experts view Iacocca's failure to groom a successor from within as perhaps his greatest managerial shortcoming. "Chrysler should never have gone outside the company," observes Eugene Jennings, a management professor at Michigan State University. Even after Iacocca nominally retires, predicts Jennings, he will try to cling to power through his chairmanship of the executive committee...
Other students of Chrysler contend that Iacocca will inevitably find fault with Eaton's management before next December and will raise the succession issue again by relaying his doubts to the board. Iacocca could then suggest delaying his own departure until the problems are solved. "Lee hasn't changed," says a longtime associate. "He's as predictable as the sun that follows the night. His game plan is to be the folk hero by turning Chrysler around for the second time. The first mistake Eaton makes, Lee will be right back in there." Advises another insider: "The first time...
...have not ruled out Lutz as the eventual winner. While the Chrysler president graciously pledged allegiance to the new order last week, friends say he has not given up. "Lutz has an interesting problem," says a confidant. "He has to figure out whether his real enemy is Eaton or Iacocca. Lutz is just saying he lost the first round and is still going to get it by default. Meanwhile, he is going to stand aside and let Eaton take the heat and get chewed...
Executive turbulence could be a dangerous distraction from Chrysler's real task of completing the comeback that Iacocca began more than a decade ago. On the positive side of the ledger, years of employee teamwork have created a new generation of promising Chrysler cars, Jeeps and minivans. "You couldn't want better vehicles to market, heading into an upturn in the economy," says Joseph Phillippi, who watches the industry for Shearson Lehman Hutton. At the same time, Chrysler's chronic cash crunch (it lost $795 million last year) makes it crucial for the vehicles...