Saturday, June 03, 2006

Lutz's Laws. The 7 laws of business that made Chrysler the world's hottest car company. (Once)

1. The customer isn't always right.
2. The primary purpose of business is not to make money.
3. When everybody else is doing it, don't!
4. Too much quality can ruin you.
5. Financial controls are bad.
6. Disruptive people are an asset.
7. Teamwork isn't always good.

Robert A. Lutz, former President and Vice Chairman of Chrysler Corporation.

(...My family finally settled down for good in Zurich following World War 2, and I managed to get myself booted out of high school. Official reason:"Academic and disciplinary problems." Luckily for me, six months of manual labor in a leather warehouse taught me that maybe buckling down in school wasn't such a bad idea after all. But my father, in his infinite wisdom, wasn't going to let me off with just that. In exchange for his promise to fund one more chance for me at education (at a public school in French-speaking Lausanne, Switzerland), he made me promise to return to the United States immediately upon graduation and enlist in the U.S.Marine Corps. At the time, I thought my father's deal might be a Faustian pact- especially since the Korean War was in full swing...
.... I loved the Corps, and I loved what it did for me in turning around my life.)

(from "Guts" Robert A. Lutz, 1998)