?Iacocca? By Lee Iacocca Essay, Research Paper
?Iacocca? by Lee Iacocca
The book Iacocca is an autobiography of Mr. Lee Iacocca. The first couple of sections of
his book were about family. Starting with his mother and father, coming over from Italy and his
childhood. His father always taught him something that when he was going to do something that
he had to be the best. Which is to be believed, where he got his strength in competition later in
his business career. Then after his parents came his wife and children, whom he loved. The next
few sections were about his job and how it was changed through out the years. Even when his
job was still with the same company his position is that company changed many times in his career
before he even traded companies.
Mr. Iacocca had a very loving and understanding family as told in this book. His parents
were always a major part in his life even after he got married and they were a large part of his life
up until their deaths. His father was always interested in cars and so in a way Mr. Iacocca grew
up around cars and the knowledge of them. His father taught him many valuable lessons about
how to deal with himself and others which also may have helped him in his future career in the
business world. When he married, his parents were proud but in a small way they were pushed to
the side to make room for his new wife, Mary. After Mary and He were married they had some
children. These children became his pride and joy. When this family grew, they all grew together
in turn and they also grew closer together. This family was extremely close. Even though the
family was close, his job did seem to have a slight impact on them.
When Mr. Iacocca first started working for Ford, he was a low ranking engineer, fresh out
of college like many of his co-workers. He tried the engineering job for a few months until he
decided that he didn?t want to work in that department but he wanted to work in the sales
department. After this major change in his life, he took control and went to his boss and said
?there is no point in me finishing the training course and that my masters degree from Princeton
was equivalent to the second nine-months of training.? That was when they decided to let him at
least interview for a sales position. Although he thought that it wouldn?t be hard to get a job in
sales with his experience, he soon found he was wrong. The first interview he was at the man
never even gave him a second glance and booted him right out the door. The second interview
made him think, the man actually gave him a change a looked him over like checking to see if his
tie was straight and so on until he finally got the job that he was working so hard to get.
As soon a he hit the sales department everything went sky high. Everybody loved him and
his views that ended up making him the number two person in the company. He just talked and
worked his way up to the top, never expecting that his boss, Henry Ford Jr., had it in for him.
Henry Ford Jr. was the number one guy at Ford after taking his grandfathers place in his
company. Mr. Ford did not really know what he was doing
company. When Mr. Iacocca made his way to the top he was proud and so was Mr. Ford. Mr.
Ford thought , just like Mr. Iacocca did, that Mr. Iacocca was going to be at the top for a while.
He was at the top for a while until Mr. Ford got the idea the pretty soon Mr. Iacocca was going
to try to take over the whole company all together, which was the totally wrong idea, and decided
it was the end of the Iacocca era at Ford.
When Mr. Iacocca lost his job he was expecting it in a way but at the same time he wasn?t.
It kind came as a shock to him as well as the media and the world. Mr. Iacocca was just the
number two man in a number two company and now he was nothing. For a while after this event
nobody who had anything to do with the Ford motor company was even allowed to talk to him.
If they did come in contact at any time, Mr. Ford would ask for a full detailed description of what
their discussion was about. This was not only wrong but it was also mildly painful for Mr.
Iacocca to lose so many friends that were at one time very loyal to him when he was working for
at the Ford company.
When Mr. Iacocca got a call from Chrysler to come and work for them, he had his doubts
and his questions about the matter but all of them were answered to his full advantage. There was
no doubt about the fact that Mr. Iacocca missed the car business but also that Chrysler was
persuing him and that they were not going to give up anytime soon. When he figured out what
Chrysler was doing he decided to play it out to his most benefit and he did. He was promised that
if he didn?t go in on top that he would soon be on top within a year of him working there. So at
the final decision he decided to go to Chrysler. As Mr. Iacocca stated ? Chrysler didn?t really
function like a company at all.?
When Mr. Iacocca started at his new job he was simply amazed at what should have been
done that wasn?t. One of the first things that he noticed was that the company had all the right
people working in the wrong departments. That was one mistake in the companies past that was
hard to fix. Then came to making a winning team like the one he had when he was working for
Ford. He had chased some down that worked at Ford with him and he eventually had a successful
team. When the company was on the verge of bankruptcy he had to convince himself along with
his workers that there was a way to bring this company back and all they had to do was find it.
By training his new staff along with some of the old, he came up with the winning team
that he needed to win the game he was playing. he put the team to work and turned the company
around to his best ability and making one of the most powerful companies in the world. As Mr.
Iacocca states in the last line of the last page ? With direction, leadership, and the support of the
American people, we can?t miss. I?m convinced that this country can once again be that bright
and shining symbol of power and freedom-challenged by none and envied by all? . That was
exactly what made him a promising figure as he is today.
Bibliography
Iacocca