Word: lutz
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Still, as with any great movie or music executive, Lutz's greatest asset is an uncanny sense of what makes a hit. He compares Detroit to Hollywood, arguing that in both cities, cost controls and clever marketing--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...
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...
During the previous year, while working as CEO of industrial battery maker Exide, Lutz started Cunningham Motors, to produce a racy, V12 coupe for the enthusiasts who otherwise would buy a Ferrari for a cool $250,000. Fortunately for Lutz, GM in December announced it would become a major Cunningham investor...
...Wagoner has made it clear that Lutz has the authority to redesign products already in the pipeline, kill pet projects and install his own. So far, this has not posed a threat to top GM executives, for a simple reason. Says David Davis Jr., founding editor of Automobile magazine: "Everyone, including Bob, knows he's not going to be chairman of General Motors...
...November Lutz brought in an outside consultant to help fix the design process. But mainly he has simply let it be known that the designers are now in charge. That approach has worked famously well at newly revived Nissan, where one of CEO Carlos Ghosn's first turnaround maneuvers was to take designers out from under the arm of engineering. "You have to unleash the creativity," says Ghosn. "Otherwise, you are dead...