Ford

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David J. Abodaher.  Iacocca.  New York: Macmillan, 1982.

The Ford Motor Company: The Early Years

During his senior year at Lehigh Iacocca set his sights on the Ford student engineers training program in Dearborn, Michigan, available to only one student at each of the 50 universities visited by the Ford Motor company each year. In 1945, the year of his graduation from Lehigh, Iacocca was offered one of these coveted positions. Yet soon thereafter, he was also offered one of two Wallace Memorial Fellowships at Princeton University, a prestigious award that covered all expenses associated with a master’s program. 

After negotiating a deferred start date at Ford, he began working at the company in August 1946. The training program was designed to give participants hands-on experience with every aspect of automobile design and production. Iacocca spent time in coal and limestone mines, steel plants, test tracks, and the assembly line. Trainees were involved in engineering, manufacturing, and also the business of running a large company.


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David J. Abodaher.  Iacocca.  New York: Macmillan, 1982.

Iacocca remained in the Ford training program for nine months of its eighteen-month term, when he realized his dream to transition from engineering to the sales force.  A self-described “people-person”, Iacocca started once again at the bottom, working his way from a position in fleet sales at a dealership in Chester, Pennsylvania to visiting dealers to advise them on sales tactics. He was promoted to zone manager in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1949. By 1953, Iacocca had been named assistant sales manager of the Philadelphia district, which he advanced in sales rankings from last in the country to first in only three months. His reputation spread, and he was promoted again to district manager of Washington, D.C.

He learned the inner-workings of the business of dealerships, ultimately returning to Dearborn as national truck marketing manager, and the following year as head of car marketing in 1960.  By December of the same year, Iacocca was named head of the Ford Division. Throughout this period, Iacocca continued to hone his management skills and define his style.

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The Ford Motor Company: President

In 1968, Iacocca felt he was close to being appointed President of Ford, until fate intervened, and Henry Ford had the opportunity to name a General Motors executive named Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen to the post.  Knudsen remained in the position for nineteen months, at which time in 1969 Ford appointed three men to hold the office: Robert Stevenson leading Ford International; Robert Hampson, in nonautomotive operations, and Lee Iacocca in charge of Ford’s North American Operations.

Within a year, the triumvirate dissolved, and Iacocca was appointed President of the Ford Motor Company on December 10, 1970.  After having concentrated on selling, marketing, and designs for years, the new President implemented cost-cutting measures, advancing company technology to increase efficiency of production and closing unprofitable departments.  Among his improvements were modifying car designs to better fit railway cars, as they were shipped by volume rather than by weight.  Another change was to close the unit that manufactured and sold appliances, including laundry equipment.

Despite achieving his dream, Iacocca routinely clashed with Henry Ford II.  The company had gone public in 1956, but its culture was slow to change, and in the mid-1970s, Ford himself still made the majority of decisions.  Iacocca was challenged in making decisions regarding personnel, car design and production, and communications with Wall Street investors.

As Iacocca observed in his 1984 autobiography, Ford made it his mission in 1975 to restructure the company’s administration without Lee Iacocca.  After thirty-two years of service, Lee Iacocca was given the opportunity to resign from Ford, or as the press reported, was fired by Henry Ford II in July 1978 after several tumultuous years.

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The Ford Mustang

Still known today as “Father of the Mustang”, Lee Iacocca inspired and coordinated the teams involved in developing prototypes, naming, producing, and marketing this iconic automobile.  During his tenure as General Manager of the Ford Division, Iacocca demonstrated his strengths as a manager, before being promoted in January 1965 to vice-president of the corporate car and truck group based on his success with the Mustang.

In his 1984 autobiography, Iacocca described America in 1960 as a “market in search of a car.”  Baby boomers, buyers who tended to be younger, better educated, and in search of smaller cars, drove the decision.  Iacocca urged his team to think in terms of a stylish performance vehicle at a low price.  Two-car families and single buyers were on the rise in 1960 as well.  He noted a trend towards ordering sportier options for current models, such as the Falcon.

Iacocca’s market research team determined that the new car had to be a lightweight four-seater, selling for no more than $2,500.  When considering styling, Iacocca determined that a “long hood and short deck” were desirable, but the car would need to be versatile in order to appeal to a wide range of buyers.

After market analysis, review of current models and proposed modifications, Iacocca determined that the 1964 World’s Fair would be the ideal venue to introduce a new model as revolutionary as he envisioned.  By way of motivating the designers at Ford, Iacocca staged a competition among them, setting a target date of August 1961 for review of their clay models.  It was the design by Dave Ash which won the competition, and the addition of standard features such as bucket seats, carpeting, and wheel covers made it the classic with which we are familiar today.

When the Ford Mustang went on sale on April 17, 1964, it was already the darling of the press.  Simultaneous features in Time and Newsweek, as well as in the automotive press, brought the new car into the public eye, and favorable reviews ensured its success.  Iacocca called for Ford management to convert additional plants to manufacture the model, when anticipated sales of 75,000 cars in the first year soon exploded into estimates of more than 200,000.  According to Iacocca, the Mustang generated net profits of $1.1 billion in the first two years.

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“The press played an important role in creating this excitement.  Due to the tireless efforts of Walter Murphy in public relations, the Mustang was featured simultaneously of the covers of both Time and Newsweek.  This was an outstanding publicity coup for a new commercial project.  Both magazines sensed we had a winner, and their added publicity during the very week of the Mustang’s introduction helped make their prediction a self-fulfilling prophecy.  I’m convinced that Time and Newsweek alone led to the sale of an extra 100,000 cars.”*
                            -Lee Iacocca

*Lee A. Iacocca. An Autobiography. Bantam Books, 1984.

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John Glenn Hughes, Jr.

“Illustrative Company and Product: Ford Motor Company and the Mustang.”  Lehigh University, Bethlehem (Pa.), 1964.

This student paper, submitted to the College of Business Administration at Lehigh University, was a requirement of Marketing 214 in 1964.  It includes transcripts of Ford Motor Company press releases; magazine articles and covers; and the author's correspondence with Lee A. Iaccoca, ‘45.

Gift of John Glenn Hughes, ’65 B.S.