Six Men Who Built The Modern Auto Industry
Publisher: Motorbooks
Published: May 28, 2005
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 384
ISBN-13: 9780760319581
Subjects: Road vehicle manufacturing industry; Biography; Automobile Industries (Economic Aspects); Transportation; Management; History; Automotive - History; Automotive - Industry; Transportation / Automotive / General; Automobile industry executives; Automotive - General; Automobile industry and trade; Industrialists
Description: This is the story of six extraordinary men who each built something from nothing, redefined the automotive industry after World War II, and redirected its course for the future: Henry Ford II (visionary autocrat with an iron will), Shoichiro Honda (most successful automotive entrepreneur since Henry Ford I), Eberhard von Kuenheim (founder of the modern BMW), Lee Iacocca, Ferdinand Piech (builder of Volkswagen Group) and Robert Lutz (who left retirement at 70 and is still highly influential at General Motors). What made them special was the sheer volume of fundamental change they brought to the largest industry in the history of the world. They not only re-shaped the auto business, the six made a sizable dent in the societies they lived in. To a man they were great cognitive thinkers. Their minds worked with animal speed, even instinct speed. But more than anything these were brave and cantankerous souls who rode the waves of history. Each could see the future. They could just make it out-sometimes imperfectly, but could see it nonetheless. They took a business that had begun to mature and decline by the 1930s and found ways to make it fresh and whole again.- The compelling story of the global car business over the past half-century.- A lively and engaging narrative that recounts some times collaborative, sometimes archly antagonistic interactions among the men- Full of business revelations at the highest level, written by a journalist operating at the heart of the industry- Global appeal that shows how automotive groups in the USA, Europe and Asia have influenced each other- A business story interlaced with personal details that explains why the six were determined to be successful. --Publisher.