Auto Makers Rev Up for Top Level Changes
With the start of the new decade, the American auto industry is undergoing a changing of the guard, providing a rare period during which all of the Big Three auto makers will be preoccupied with their internal lines of succession.
The transfer of power begins this week, with the retirement of Ford Chairman Donald E. Petersen, 63, the soft-spoken, thoughtful engineer and auto racing buff who has been widely credited with orchestrating Ford’s remarkable recovery from a financial crisis in the early 1980s.
Petersen, will be followed into retirement in August by General Motors Chairman Roger B. Smith, 64, a far more controversial figure who has spent a volatile decade at the controls of the world’s largest corporation, in the process becoming the absent target of Michael Moore’s biting film, “Roger & Me.”
And finally at the end of 1991, comes the exit--sure to be dramatic--of Chrysler Chairman Lee A. Iacocca, 65. A rough-and-tumble businessman who was transformed into a national hero after saving Chrysler, Iacocca is now a fixture in American pop culture, thanks to his flamboyant style, ready wit, and economic patriotism. All of which, ever so briefly, led to his flirtation with presidential politics.
Along the way, he has also found time to spearhead the restoration of the Statue of Liberty, appear in dozens of commercials and do a guest shot on “Miami Vice.”
The three executives, who guided the Big Three through the 1980s with varying degrees of success, could hardly have been more different personalities. Yet they were still bound together by the common challenge of being the first generation of Detroit leaders to feel the full force of foreign competition; now they must leave it to others to keep Detroit competitive at the close of the century.
At a farewell breakfast meeting with reporters Tuesday, Petersen talked at length about his days as chairman and about his friends “Roger and Lee,” who will soon be departing as well.
“Obviously, we are all products of World War II as young adults, and we are also products of a period of dominant American industrial might, during which there was also dominant American automotive might,” Petersen observed.
But “we are all dramatically different people, and it suggests that there is no formula” for choosing the right chief executive, he added.
“Lee was the most obvious among us, who, as a young person, was seen as someone who might rise to one of these positions,” Petersen said. “Lee is one of the few people who could have gone to Chrysler and do what he did there.
“Roger is very much a product of the GM system . . . a very logical outgrowth of the GM way.
“I’m probably the biggest surprise of the bunch.”
Only at General Motors is the order of succession still in doubt. Outside GM shareholders, most notably managers of several large public pension funds, have sought to influence the selection process, arguing that the serious erosion in GM’s share of the American car market calls for genuine change at the top of GM.
GM officials won’t comment on the succession, but so far, it appears that GM will ignore that external pressure and go with a company lifer. President Robert Stempel, 56, who came up through the engineering ranks, seems to have the inside track on Smith’s job.
It is less clear who will replace Stempel as president, however. Some GM insiders say that GM Executive Vice President John F. Smith (no relation to Roger Smith) may get the nod.
John Smith, 51, made his mark by leading the negotiations for GM that led to the company’s joint venture with Toyota. He now runs the firm’s highly profitable international operations, which are carrying the company during the continuing auto slump in the United States.
At Ford, meanwhile, the changeover has come smoothly and quietly, despite some earlier complaints from members of the founding Ford family that they would like a bigger say in the company’s affairs. Harold (Red) Poling, 64, the firm’s president, is taking over this week, the third consecutive non-Ford family member to become chairman of the world’s second-largest auto maker.
At Chrysler, Iacocca has cleared the way for Gerald Greenwald, 55, the company’s stylish vice chairman--who followed Iacocca from Ford and has Iacocca’s intelligence but not his charisma--to become his heir apparent.
Donald E. Petersen Chairman, Ford Motor Co. Born: Sept. 4, 1926 Education: Bachelor’s, University of Washington, 1946; MBA, Stanford University, 1949 Experience: Worked his way up through product development and engineering; was a member, under Iacocca, of the Mustang team. Took over at Ford in 1985. Roger B. Smith Chairman, General Motors Corp. Born: July 12, 1925 Education: Bachelor’s, University of Michigan, 1947; MBA, University of Michigan, 1953 Experience: Took the traditional route to the top at GM--through the financial ranks, starting as a general accounting clerk in the Detroit central office. Took the helm in 1981. Lee A. Iacocca Chairman, Chrysler Corp. Born: Oct. 15, 1924 Education: Bachelor’s, Lehigh University, 1945; Master’s, Princeton University, 1946 Experience: Took over at Chrysler in 1978 after being fired from the presidency of Ford. Led Chrysler through its federal bailout and into an era of record profits in the 1980s.
