Notes of a Curmudgeon in Clover

By Christine Tian | Tuesday, April 24, 2007

BOOK REVIEW

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
Lee Iacocca
Scribner, 2007

I have a confession to make, Mr. Iacocca: I like Japanese cars. My first car was a Honda Accord, which I gleefully steered around and around a grocery store parking lot to practice for the license test as my friends picked out their Toyota Corollas, Honda Civics, and Acura Legends from dealership lots and ad pages. I still feel bitter when recalling the numerous times my family’s Ford Explorer and Crown Victoria have died, broken, or just plain malfunctioned on long-distance trips. This might make me a bad citizen and a traitor to American automakers, which Lee Iacocca, the former president of Ford, retired CEO of Chrysler, and, most recently, author of a self-help manual/memoir/stump speech thinly veiled as the book Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, describes as “the engine that drove our economy and world.” There’s no doubt that cars are an integral part of American culture—think of the iconic minivan-driving soccer mom as a nationally recognized symbol of suburbia, the clamor during the last election for the “NASCAR dad” vote, and even that terrifying animated travesty Cars that confirmed my fears that cars have minds of their own and yes, the grilles on the front of the automobiles really are supposed to look like hungry mouths. But lately, the cars that are so important to Americans are designed and produced in Japan, Korea, or Germany, a trend which Iacocca laments in Leaders. I’m not sure whom to blame for this—my own blatantly un-patriotic, anti-American taste, the US government, or the people of Japan—and Iacocca offers few answers.

Really, I’m not sure of most things regarding his latest book. I’m not sure why I picked it up—the back flap vaguely promised a commentary on the sad state of American foreign and economic policy; a car enthusiast might peruse its contents to learn more about Mr. Iacocca’s past achievements in the industry, such as spearheading the development of the minivan and Ford Mustang or saving Chrysler from near-bankruptcy in the eighties; my grandmother might enjoy his celebrity anecdotes about calls from Bill Clinton and advice from Bob Hope. And, to some extent, we get a little of all of that: Mr. Iacocca reminds me of nothing so much as a curmudgeonly but charming grandfather, firmly criticizing “young people these days” and telling stories from his own (incredible) life, and, like such a grandfather, he is imposing, fascinating, passionate about his causes and criticisms (ranging from alternative fuel to health care to education), and very, very rambling.

Ostensibly a political book meant to incite complacent Americans to action, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? careens wildly, but rather entertainingly, from style to style, with mixed results. Iacocca’s assessment of the crop of 2008 presidential hopefuls reads like a particularly cheesy inspirational pamphlet: he cursorily evaluates each leader on how well they measure up to his “Nine C’s of Leadership” such as communication, common sense, competence, etc. Needless to say, statements like “[Barack Obama] has CHARISMA and CONVICTION, and obviously he has strong COMMUNICATION skills”; “There is always a question mark about CHARACTER and CONVICTION hanging over [Hillary Clinton’s] head”; and “John McCain has shown COURAGE and CHARACTER in the worst CRISIS imaginable” (all caps his own) become very tiresome very quickly. Nearly fifty pages of his book are devoted to a self-help manual of sorts for the lagging American auto industry, as he throws out such bons mots as “resist the urge to merge” and “it’s all about the synergy.” It’s well-written and well-researched—after all, Mr. Iacocca is one of the most qualified people in the world right now to discuss the state of the Big Three—but not exactly relevant or coherent; after finishing this chapter, the reader gets the feeling that the book might as well have been titled Where Have All the CEO’s Gone? or perhaps Why Are We Better Than Germany And Japan?

Mr. Iacocca’s most interesting digressions from political commentary are his highly amusing, unconventional tales of famous (and infamous) figures he’s encountered during his decades-long career in industry, philanthropy, and civic activity. When discussing the absurdity of the US embargo against Cuba, he launches into a fascinating account of smoking cigars and hunting pigeons with Fidel Castro some thirteen years ago. One of the most enjoyable anecdotes details his post-retirement commercial for Chrysler, which featured a modern twist on Iacocca’s famous 80’s slogan “If you can find a better car, buy it”: rap icon Snoop Doggy Dogg riding a golf cart with Mr. Iacocca, telling the audience “If the ride is more fly, then you must buy.” Iacocca concludes the narrative succinctly and drolly: “Snoop Dogg seemed like a nice kid, but I never understood a word he said.”

The lack of a cohesive structure throughout the book is alternately entertaining and maddening, especially when such inconsistency makes itself evident in his political views. Sure, many of his chapter headings and supposedly “probing” questions, like “Instead of corporate greed, how about corporate generosity?” or “Who will save the middle class?” would make great campaign slogans (as befits a man who was once seriously lobbied to run for President, and considered a Senatorial career after retirement), but like campaign slogans, they often don’t make much sense when held up to scrutiny. For instance, he lambastes Congress for passing too many intrusive laws and spending too much money, essentially a conservative and non-interventionist stance—but then praises John Edwards as “the only real populist” in the 2008 Presidential race. He opines that cronyism, or “corporate incest,” should be labeled one of the “seven deadly sins” and that it’s running our political and business leadership into the ground—but cheerfully acknowledges the role of connections in his own corporate success, and recounts the time when his personal friend Congressman John Murtha wanted to appoint him to temporarily replace a Pennsylvania Senator who died in a plane crash, guaranteeing him “some juicy committee assignments.” No Child Left Behind’s reliance on tests is too rigid—but we must emulate the science and math achievement of Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and China, all nations that utilize a vastly more strict testing system. We want politicians that are “straight shooters” and “tell it like it is” —but they have to make nice with foreign allies and enemies alike. And so on, and so forth. Iacocca spends a great deal of time criticizing American consumers’ case of the “gimmies,” noting that it’s unhealthy to want everything; ironically, these shifting opinions that embrace every politically appealing view (“Globalization is good, AND we must protect American jobs!” or “Help the middle class, AND raise taxes!”) make it clear that, politically and ideologically, Iacocca really does want everything.

Iacocca’s views on globalization are the most interesting, given his extensive background in an industry that many Americans feel are losing out to foreign competition. He praises “globalization,” that nebulous concept, as an inevitable force of good, citing his support of NAFTA, but his opinions are colored by his time at Chrysler and Ford—the first of which has since been acquired by the German company Daimler Benz in an unequal merger, the second of which has fallen to Toyota in market share of cars sold in America. Iacocca claims that American auto companies’ ability to compete in the global market has been artificially constrained by governmental policies, such as the need to provide health care (which adds up to $1500 to the cost of every American car, a burden which is much less on foreign companies) or the Japanese government’s manipulation of the yen which makes it cheaper for them to export than import; he advocates raising barriers to entry in America’s market until such inequalities are remedied. An interesting view, and certainly beneficial to American companies, but one has to wonder if there are any alternatives that are not so politically expedient: after all, is the answer to protectionism more protectionism? And for that matter, what does he want the government to do about the health care burden—nationalize it, privatize it, or forget about it? We’re never quite sure, and the problems remain without solutions.

Throughout the book, such questions remain unanswered. Iacocca does a notable job of providing ideas for business solutions to GM, Chrysler, and Ford’s problems, but on the issue of practical, macro-level solutions to other American dilemmas like the war on terror and the management of education, he is mainly silent. Conflicting and contradictory opinions and fiery criticisms without solutions do mar Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, which can probably be most appreciated as a memoir or personal statement of sorts, a not unerringly cohesive or perfected expression of one powerful, charismatic, and admirable man’s reflections on current society.

One valuable lesson to take away from the book lies in his suggestions for individual action, which are some of the most relevant and useful issues he brings up: he eloquently and simply encourages readers to vote, motivate their children and families to read, and stop over-medicating and over-spending. Despite the lack of leadership in American politics, we can at least “cultivate our garden”—not a bad message to send in an era when personal responsibility seems to have largely been replaced by government intervention.

Notes of a Curmudgeon in Clover

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