Как уволили Ли Якокку
Дочитал до места, где Якокку уволили. Всю тему Генри Форд II проворачивал три года. Ли, типа, был самым охуенным менеджером за всю историю автопрома и зарабатывал Форду миллиард в год. Поэтому просто выкинуть его было нельзя, но Форд парился, что Ли стал круче него и что династия под угрозой, поэтому - намутил.
Форд натурально издевался над Ли все три года. Унижал, постоянно меняя систему топ-менеджмента так, что к концу третьего года Ли оказался не вторым чуваком после Форда, а четвёртым.
Наконец Ли пригласили в кабинет:
As I took my seat at the table, Henry hemmed and hawed. He had never fired anyone, and he didn’t know how to begin. “There comes a time when I have to do things my way,” he finally said. “I’ve decided to reorganize the company. This is one of those things that you hate to do, but you have to do it anyway. It’s been a nice association”-I looked at him in disbelief-“but I think you should leave. It’s best for the company.”
At no point during our entire forty-five-minute meeting did he ever use the word “fired.”
“What’s this all about?” I asked.
But Henry couldn’t give me a reason. “It’s personal,” he said, “and I can’t tell you any more. It’s just one of those things.”
But I persisted. I wanted to force him to give me a reason because I knew he didn’t have a good one. Finally, he just shrugged his shoulders and said: “Well, sometimes you just don’t like somebody.”
‹…›
Up to this point, our conversation had been remarkably calm. Then I took over. For Henry’s benefit, I recited a list of my accomplishments on behalf of the Ford Motor Company. I reminded Henry that we had just completed the two best years in our history. I wanted him to know exactly what he was throwing away.
When I finished my speech, I said: “Look at me.” Until this point he had not been able to look me in the eye. My voice was rising now as I realized that this would be our final conversation.
“Your timing stinks,” I said. “We’ve just made a billion eight for the second year in a row. That’s three and a half billion in the past two years. But mark my words, Henry. You may never see a billion eight again. And do you know why? Because you don’t know how the fuck we made it in the first place!”
И что? В целом - ничего. Генри всё сошло с рук, хотя он владел только 10% компании. А Ли отправился нахуй.
В конце главы собраны цитаты из изданий того времени. Вот самая мощная:
Nicholas Von Hoffman, the syndicated columnist, went even further. Calling Henry a “60-year-old adolescent,” he concluded: “If a guy like Iacocca’s job isn’t safe, is yours?”
Книга - Iacocca: An Autobiography