Iacocca Hints He May Keep a Post at Chrysler : Autos: He says he still plans to retire as company chief in 14 months but might stay on as chairman.
Chrysler Chairman Lee A. Iacocca still plans to retire as chief executive in 14 months, but he is now dropping hints that he might stay on as chairman.
The exact form of Iacocca’s retirement has been a subject of speculation since he announced plans to step down as chief executive on Dec. 31, 1992. The announcement made no mention of the chairman’s role.
In an interview before presiding over the official opening Tuesday of Chrysler’s $1-billion technology center north of Detroit, Iacocca said he didn’t plan to leave Chrysler altogether and noted that he was retiring only “as chief executive officer.”
“I may play a small role in the company,” he said. “No big role--certainly no active operating role.” A Chrysler spokesman said the chairmanship “would seem to be a possibility.”
Investment analysts and others, some of whom believe that Iacocca’s departure is overdue, are doubtful that the strong-minded Iacocca would let his successor have a free rein if he retained power at the auto maker.
Iacocca chose his 67th birthday to dedicate the technical center, a massive structure in a pastoral setting 30 miles north of Detroit that will apparently be the world’s only example of a complete automotive design, engineering and pilot assembly complex under one roof.
Other comments in the interview and at a news conference:
* Chrysler’s long-running negotiations to sell its 50% interest in an Illinois car assembly plant to partner Mitsubishi Motors will bear fruit “shortly.” But he bristled at suggestions from Japan that Mitsubishi was bailing out Chrysler. “This is peanuts,” he said.
* The Big Three U.S. auto makers will continue their recent strategy of cooperating on technology research projects, a trend that could even lead to collaboration on building a small car. Another Chrysler executive hastened to add that Iacocca was “talking conceptually.”
The opening of the technical center was a much-anticipated bright spot in Chrysler’s otherwise dismal year, and there was no shortage of fanfare or hyperbole at Tuesday’s festivities. The company has even applied to the Guinness Book of Records for the right to call the building the largest industrial technical center under one roof in the world.
Chrysler hopes that its new complex will enable it to reduce the amount of time it takes to bring a new car or truck to market by a full year--to three years--which can add up to a savings of $200 million. The company said it will develop its 1994 subcompact line, code-named the PL, in 36 months.
Some industry analysts have criticized Chrysler for erecting the grandiose structure, given the No. 3 auto maker’s financial woes.
“It’s an unnecessary extravagance for a company in Chrysler’s condition,” said John Casesa, an analyst with Wertheim Schroder Inc. in New York. “I don’t know why they couldn’t have done it for $500 million.”
But Iacocca defends the expense as an example of long-term thinking that will ensure the company’s future success. It announced plans for the building in 1984, when Chrysler was recovering from a brush with bankruptcy.
Like other domestic auto makers, Chrysler’s future--and the principle on which the new building is structured--are tied to how closely it can emulate the Japanese system of developing a vehicle.
Because Japanese auto makers only need three years to bring a car to market once its design is set, they are more closely attuned to public tastes and spend significantly less money in the process.
The new technical center lends itself to Chrysler’s adoption of a “platform team” approach to developing new vehicles. It resulted from an exhaustive study of Honda’s processes by a team of Chrysler officials.
