Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, GM, Celebrities
Where have all the mavericks gone?
When he hands in his office keys a few days from now, General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz will begin an oft-delayed retirement that was originally set to begin shortly after the ill-fated "merger of equals" between Daimler and Chrysler.His decision to rejoin the automotive workforce a few years later wasn't all that much of a surprise to those who knew the former Marine pilot and what quite literally could be called his driving ambition. That leads many to suspect we'll continue to hear from Lutz, even though he bluntly wonders, "Who would hire a senior executive who's nearly 80 years old?"
Finally, it seems, this old soldier really may fade away, taking on a book assignment and a board seat or two. And, in the process, Lutz's departure will bring with it a different sort of change in the auto industry, the departure of the last classic automotive maverick.
Pull out a pen and jot down the names of the best-known auto industry executives. Your list might include Billy Ford or Alan Mulally, Ed Whitacre or even Carlos Ghosn, if you're taking the global view. Despite their prominence, even their willingness to take risks, these aren't exactly the sort of mavericks and eccentrics the industry was long known for.
That goes for Sergio Marchionne, the head of both Fiat and Chrysler. True, he's not your typical gray-flannel executive - he buys his trademark black sweaters "by the dozen," he jokes - and is clearly playing a high-risk poker game in his effort to turn around a desperately ill American automaker. But in the end, if someone eventually writes the Harvard Business Review analysis of the Canadian-educated executive, he'll still turn out to be another by-the-books strategist.
Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of TheDetroitBureau.com, and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.
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