Japanese production immigrants

2065438+On July 2, 2009, Lee Iacocca, a legend in the automobile industry, passed away at the age of 94.

From the son of immigrants to an American hero, Iacocca worked for Ford for 32 years, from salesman to president, but at the peak of his career, he was swept out of the house and almost committed suicide, but he made a comeback and became the "younger brother" of Detroit Big Three in the 1980s-the savior of Chrysler.

Iacocca's legend lies in his success as a professional manager, and also in the difficult choices behind these achievements about growth, humiliation, collapse and the darkest moment.

Just like his self-report, "When I look back on my 38-year career in the automobile industry, what impresses me the most has nothing to do with the brilliant moment of new car listing, promotion or dividend."

Lee Iacocca's story begins with his father Nicola Iacocca.

1902, 12-year-old Italian immigrant Nicola Iacocca arrived in the United States.

When the ship sailed into new york Harbor, Nicholas saw the Statue of Liberty, which symbolized the hope of countless immigrants.

Poor and helpless Nicholas only believed that "the earth is round", because an Italian named Columbus had just arrived in America 4 10 years earlier than him.

When Nicholas passed the Statue of Liberty again, he was already a successful American citizen, surrounded by his mother, young wife, clever son and endless hope-as long as you have goals and are willing to work hard, you can succeed.

This is the most precious lesson Nicholas taught his son.

Even in the hard years of the Great Depression in the 1930 s, my father's sentence "The sun will always come out, so go ahead bravely and don't give up halfway" has become Xiao Keka's reassurance.

The second wealth Nicholas left his son was self-confidence.

Whenever Xiaoke Kolor comes home with a certificate from the school spelling bee, Nicholas is overjoyed and can't wait to tell his friends.

Even after Iacocca joined Ford, as long as Ford pushed a new car, Nicholas would be the first to test drive; On the day Iacocca was promoted to president, he couldn't tell who was happier, himself or his father.

The third wealth Nicholas left his son was his love of cars.

He is one of the few people in town who can drive. He owns the earliest Ford Model T and plays with it whenever he has time to improve his performance.

Father didn't allow Xiaoke to ride a bike, but when he reached 16, he supported him to take a driver's license-as a result, he became the first young man in town to drive a Ford.

Of course, like the descendants of most immigrants at that time, Xiaoke's childhood was not just fun, and Iacocca's family was very reluctant to let others know that they were Italian. Iacocca sometimes fights with older children who laugh at him, but he always remembers his father's warning: If the other person is taller than you, don't fight back, use your head instead of your fist.

1946, Iacocca, who knows the rules of street survival, obtained three degrees in industrial engineering, business and psychology from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

After graduating from Lehigh University, he went to Princeton University for further study on a scholarship.

During this period, he also listened to Einstein's live speech, but he just didn't understand it. )

Graduated from an Ivy League school+the current hot engineering science position has given Iacocca a glamorous starting point.

When he graduated, faced with an offer of 20, he chose Ford without hesitation-he drove an old 1938 Ford car with 60 horsepower in his early years and often said to his friends, "They need me, and the company that built such a bad car definitely needs help."

1946 On a summer night, Iacocca, 2 1 year-old, arrived in Detroit by bus overnight.

He became a trainee engineer at Ford.

During the training, one day, his parents came to see him. For his son in overalls, Father Nicholas smiled and said, "I go to school at 17. Now do you understand the consequences of not taking the first place in the class? "

Before the internship was over, Iacocca found it boring to deal with inanimate machines all day-he was obsessed with various attempts at interpersonal communication since he was a child, and he was really interested in dealing with people.

He wants to apply for internal transfer.

After many twists and turns, a regional manager in Pennsylvania gave the new engineer a chance.

The engineer turned to the track of salesman.

Now, this story seems to be taken for granted. A young man with marketing talent joined the business world after graduation and made great achievements, finally realizing the American dream.

Slow down, it's not what you think.

Iacocca proved with practical experience that not all excellent salespeople are born.

Iacocca is a person who is good at summing up experience.

At first, even though he practiced selling over and over again, every time he picked up the phone, his heart still felt scared.

After repeated refusals and optimizations, the other party finally stopped hanging up on him soon-just like in college, after a period of hard work, Iacocca's sales promotion began to become smooth and excellent.

His luck is also good.

After World War II, the demand for buying a car soared. Three years later, Iacocca, a telemarketer, was promoted to regional sales manager in Wilkesboro. He drives a brand-new car with a slide projector, posters and icons every day, arrives in the city of the designated dealer on Sunday night, and gives the dealer non-stop sales training on Monday morning.

This is a crucial stage in his life. This experience made Iacocca understand a truth: dealers are the essence of the American automobile industry, and if you want to succeed in this line, you must stand on the same front with the dealers.

He will always keep this in mind in the future ups and downs.

An episode during this period well illustrates Iacocca's profound understanding of human nature: he found his family name "Iacocca" difficult to remember for many northerners, but southerners liked it so much that they forgot his Italian identity and regarded him as one of them. Soon, salesmen and distributors in the southern United States knew about this partner named Iacocca.

After seven years of hard work, Iacocca, Barak's regional manager, was promoted to assistant sales manager in Philadelphia.

Before I could enjoy the joy of promotion, an eventful autumn came.

1956, Ford headquarters introduced a new car, and the company sent an advertisement introducing the safety device of this car for him to show to the dealer.

Iacocca noticed that there was a commentary in the film:

He decided to give a physical performance at a regional promotion meeting attended by more than 65,438+0,000 salespeople-he spread a new safety mat on the floor, then climbed a high ladder with a box of eggs and threw them down himself.

The first egg fell to the floor and broke, which made everyone laugh; When the second egg was dropped, the assistant who took the escalator for him shook it unfortunately, and the egg landed on the assistant's shoulder, causing another hiss; Although the third and fourth eggs fell on the mat, they were all broken until the fifth egg experiment was successful.

The performance failed, but Iacocca reflected on the sales skills:

1. Make a physical demonstration, and don't use eggs (egg liquid has been stuck on his face that day, and he unconsciously rubbed it up when he was embarrassed);

Rehearsal is very important in promotion activities, and everything you say and do must be foolproof.

Generally speaking, the publicity of safety devices planned by the headquarters has not achieved the expected results. Ford's sales in various places have become weak, and Iacocca's Philadelphia area has become the bottom.

The sales manager was in danger of being fired until a genius marketing plan sent the worst deputy manager directly to the senior management of Ford Motor Company.

"56 to 56-as long as you pay a 20% down payment, you can buy a 1956 Ford at a price of $56 per month within three years."

Think about it. Are you a little excited?

This was planned by Iacocca, the bottom sales manager.

In just three months, Philadelphia's sales jumped from the bottom to the top.

When Ford headquarters promoted this promotion method, the annual sales of this car soared by 75,000 units.

Ten years of hard work and overnight fame.

1960, 36-year-old Iacocca was promoted to vice president and manager of Ford Motor Company-only one year later than when he vowed to be vice president of Ford at the age of 35 in college.

It was also this year that he got married.

The bride was a receptionist in the Philadelphia office of Ford, and they fell in love for several years. Because Iacocca often travels, the wedding date has been postponed again and again.

The day after moving into the new house, Iacocca was told to work in Detroit, the headquarters of Ford.

On hearing this news, Iacocca's first reaction was: God, the carpet in my new house costs 2000 dollars! Can the company help me pay this money?

After becoming the new vice president, Iacocca indulged in his work. He can't wait to go to work every morning and doesn't want to get off work at night.

The enthusiasm of the leaders defiled the team.

These confident young people regard themselves as artists, their new cars are their works of art, and they want to design unprecedented masterpieces.

Iacocca, who rose to the top quickly, also knew very well that if he wanted to have a stable position, he must have a convincing performance as soon as possible.

There is only one way: push a new car.

He organizes employees to get together once a week to analyze and predict consumer psychology and market.

In these gatherings, he realized that after Kennedy entered the White House in the 1960s, an optimistic atmosphere swept across the United States, and rejuvenation was the market trend. Market research has also confirmed that at least half of the growth of automobile purchasing power in the next 10 year will come from young people.

He set a goal for the development of a new car: it can seat four people, with a spacious trunk, a long hood and a short back deck.

1at the end of 962, the new car design was finalized: it resembled the European racing car advocated by American racing fans; And it's not just a sports car, you can also hang up the carriage and go to the country club for a holiday on Friday night; I can drive it to church again on Sunday.

Very suitable for young American couples.

This generation of young Americans finally has a reason to love Detroit metal.

However, naming a new car is always an uphill battle.

There are many names on Iacocca's desk, such as Super Falcon, Jaguar and Dorino-because Dorino and the Italian industrial city of Turin have similar pronunciations and have the exotic flavor Iacocca wants.

When I was going to advertise with the name "Dorino", Iacocca got a call from the public relations manager: You must change the name of the new car.

It turns out that Henry II, the chairman, is getting a divorce, and his new girlfriend is Italian. Giving a new car an Italian name may cause bad associations.

In the end, the horrible advertising company dug up a bunch of wild animal names from the Detroit public library, and Iacocca chose wild horses from them. (However, this Mustang is not a real horse, but a Mustang fighter taken from the lofty sky in World War II. )

After confirming the name, someone said to Iacocca, "Look, the mustang sign on the front of the car runs in the wrong direction, because it runs clockwise, not counterclockwise at the American racecourse."

Iacocca replied, "Because he is a wild horse, not a tame horse."

(Applause for Teacher Ai's wit and eloquence)

1In April, 1964, Mustang received tens of thousands of orders on the first day of its debut, and sold 1000000000 vehicles in two years of production, bringing Ford a net profit of1100000000 dollars.

1end of 970, Ford headquarters building.

In the sunshine after the snow, the board unanimously approved Iacocca's appointment as President of Ford.

He thought, this is the best Christmas present.

He immediately called his wife, Mary, and Nicholas's father who was far away from home-he was sure that this day would be his father's happiest day.

The eternal truth that Gao Zhen is a master of merit can be used to explain all the second-in-command killed by the boss.

Iacocca is handsome, persistent and humorous, but aggressive. He and Ford II often clashed on product planning, executive appointment and expenditure priorities.

1975, Ford II, who was suspicious by nature, began to cut power, and Iacocca's position fell from the second to the fourth in the group, and he was put in the cold.

Iacocca asked little Ford for a statement, and little Ford's reason was: I just don't like you.

1978 July 13 On a hot afternoon, Ford II called Iacocca to his office and informed him that he had been removed from his post and would not have to go to the president's office in the future.

Although he was psychologically prepared, Iacocca could not hold back his anger. He raised his voice: "Look at me! Your decision is terrible. I made 3.5 billion profits for the company in the past two years. You may never see the annual profit of 65.438+0.8 billion again, because you only know how to spend money and don't know how to make money! "

Anyway, on this day, Iacocca, the president who worked for Ford for 32 years, was fired.

In the resignation negotiation with Ford II, Iacocca won himself a three-month buffer period, and the company will provide him with an office until he finds a new job.

It was a dark warehouse a few miles away from Ford's headquarters, and the secretary greeted it with tears at the door.

He opened the door and saw that the office was only the size of a bedroom, with cracked linoleum on the floor and only a small table with two plastic cups on it. Compared with his luxurious presidential office, it's like being exiled to Siberia.

This final humiliation is worse for Iacocca than being fired. "I want to kill someone-I'm not sure whether I want to kill Henry Ford or myself."

He was so angry that he suddenly turned and walked out. This is his first and last time to set foot in this studio.

The higher you climb, the more painful you fall.

As soon as he was fired, Iacocca seemed to disappear from the world, and all his men were afraid to see him and avoid him.

Nikolai's father once said that a person is considered great if he has five true friends at the end of his life-Iacocca realized the meaning of this sentence.

Even his family was implicated-for a whole week, his daughter Leah was like a year later. "The daughter of the general manager has a sense of superiority everywhere. Now she has been punished! "

At this time, Iacocca was 54 years old and knew his destiny.

So, did Iacocca's legend of dominating Detroit come to an abrupt end?

Of course not.

But his painful experience cannot be erased. He began to drink, get angry, imitate anxiety and depression, and even thought about suicide until his wife reminded him: Don't just get angry, do something really.

He began to cheer up-or in other words, his fighting spirit was completely aroused-and later he recalled, "When I really went to the battlefield and the situation was very difficult, my adrenaline would start to flow."

After being fired, many companies with deep pockets invited him because of his past reputation. He can be a boss in other industries, just like Mulally of Boeing went to Ford as CEO in 2006, and he can also accept Renault's invitation to work as a global automobile consultant. At that time, he was 54 years old and had a free source of income.

However, he felt that he was not fit to be a consultant. "I really like to devote myself to my work. I like to be directly responsible for things. Success is my honor. If I fail, I am willing to accept punishment. "

He chose to meet new challenges and entered the debt-ridden Chrysler Company at that time.

Iacocca hardly noticed the existence of Chrysler when he was in Ford. In his eyes, the opponent is just GM, and he never takes Chrysler seriously. But this platform he despised before will be the starting point of his revenge.

1978 On this day, Iacocca became the president of Chrysler.

Then, he collapsed again, and he took over a mess far beyond his expectations.

Internally, cash dried up. On the day of taking office, the company announced a loss of $65.438 +0.6 billion for three consecutive quarters.

Management confusion, a company actually has 35 vice presidents, but also each end, mutual ventilation;

Products are shoddy and the backlog is serious;

Externally, the Iranian incident has led to an increase in gasoline prices, and Japanese imported cars that pay attention to economy and fuel economy are eyeing.

He wrote in his autobiography: "If I had known that the task before me was so arduous, I wouldn't have done it even if I had all the money in the world. Fortunately, God didn't let you know your future destiny one or two years in advance, otherwise you might shoot yourself in pain. "

But now that we are on board, we must grit our teeth and move on.

"Once the hard times come, there is really no choice but to take a deep breath, grit your teeth and go all out."

After hugging the country's thigh, Iacocca waved a big knife at himself-he closed 20 factories, laid off 74,000 people and fired 33 of the 35 vice presidents between 1978 and 1980. The employee accepted a salary reduction of $65,438+200 million, the upstream manufacturer agreed to postpone the down payment for three times, and the management agreed to reduce the salary by $65,438 +0.00%-the basis for promoting these was that he first reduced the salary to $65,438+0.

He has always been the kind of person who emphasizes the sense of honor brought by high salary. In the1970s, Henry Ford Jr. and he were the two highest-paid entrepreneurs in America.

"As a business leader, the most important thing is to take the lead in letting employees see that everyone will imitate you."

Iacocca knows very well that people are the most important.

In times of crisis, the best way to mobilize people is to let everyone know about the whole action and become a part of it.

Perhaps because of his sales background, people are willing to attribute his success to his eloquence, but in fact, marketing has only contributed a small part to Chrysler's turnaround.

Only a cold-blooded president who is familiar with the products can lead the enterprise out of the quagmire, not a smiling and versatile marketing guru-for example, Iacocca removed 33 of the 35 vice presidents and 24 of the 28 senior executives for various reasons.

At the same time, he took out his notebook with him, which recorded the performance of hundreds of Ford managers-he dug up all the old men of Ford and was responsible for the development of new cars.

He knew that these people had a great (but rejected by Ford II) new car idea: Model K.

Model K became Chrysler's last card.

This is the car Iacocca wanted to make when he was at Ford. It can run well with only four cylinders, with front wheel drive, spacious space, solid structure and gorgeous appearance. Not as thin as other small cars, it is fuel-efficient and practical. You can also cram six Americans in for the first time.

This was specially designed by Iacocca to deal with Japanese opponents, but unfortunately little Ford refused all the time.

As of 198 1, K-cars has occupied more than 20% of the small car market.

The cash flow brought by K-car has become a lifeline for Chrysler.

1983 was a bittersweet year for Iacocca.

This spring, his wife Mary, who had been ill for a long time, passed away.

Before she died, she said to her husband, "The car is really good now, much better than the scrap iron you drove back a few years ago"-Iacocca often drives a family of four out to play, especially when her two daughters are young.

"She was beautiful until she died."

Iacocca recalled this in his autobiography.

In fact, if Mary persists for another two months, she will see her husband turn over against the wind with her own eyes-

On August 6th, 5438+5, Iacocca handed over a US dollar check with a face value as high as 8140,000, which was the only check in his life. At this point, Chrysler announced that it had paid off all its debts, seven years earlier than expected.

Five years ago today, Ford fired him.

That year's festival, he has defeated him in the traditional American way and pulled it back.

Yes, only the United States can give him a chance to succeed, and he also seized the opportunity.

This became the theme of his autobiography.

"Today, I have a successful career. Only in the United States can I have a chance to succeed, and I have seized the opportunity. "

From 65438 to 0984, Chrysler achieved a net profit of $2.38 billion, exceeding the highest level in history and returning to the position of one of the three largest automobile manufacturers in the world.

In the same year, Chrysler acquired a 0/5.6% stake in Maserati/KLOC, which was the same as the limelight.

Just as Iacocca came out of the furnace, Chrysler finally stood up again on the brink of life and death.

Iacocca became the most admired hero of Americans-the latter saw in him the American dream of never giving up and never giving up.

When a person lives as a representative of an industry, an era and a spirit, his story is immortal.

1982, when President Reagan invited Iacocca to be the chairman of the commemorative committee for the 0/00th anniversary of the completion of the Statue of Liberty in New York, Iacocca was bewildered by Chrysler's work.

But he accepted it gladly.

When I was a child, my parents often told him this story-when I first met the Statue of Liberty, they were immigrants who had just arrived in the United States, penniless and could not speak English.

"If you are diligent and persistent, you will be surprised to find that you can achieve as much success as you want in a free society."

Iacocca has proved this all his life.

Of course, he also stressed that "my success was not achieved by secret recipes, but by nearly 40 years of hard work."

As the last stop to witness Iacocca's comeback, the story behind Chrysler is not optimistic.

In the financial crisis that swept the world in 2008, it failed to repeat the miracle of the 1980s and declared bankruptcy.

20 14 was acquired by Fiat, an old Italian car company;

What is worth mentioning today may only be the jeep brand that Iacocca insisted on acquiring, but the sales of jeep in China have already started a round of slump.