Iacocca Sounds Off On Today's Leaders

(CBS)  As the straight-talking CEO who rose to fame heading Ford and saved Chrysler from bankruptcy in the 1980s, Lee Iacocca became a corporate icon — the best pitchman any car company ever had.

In one famous commercial, he said: "If you can find a better car, buy it."

The commercials helped make the CEO a star. Iacocca's autobiography was a record-breaking best seller — number one for 36 straight weeks.

Then 15 years ago, after Frank Sinatra serenaded him at a lavish goodbye party, Iacocca moved to California and slipped quietly into retirement.

"I get a little bit more mellow ... well, sometimes. Maybe that's a wrong word," he told CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason.

He's not mellow at all in his new book, "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?" The straight-shooting Iacocca is back taking aim at overpaid CEOs and his successors at Chrysler.

He begins at the top and attacks the White House: On page one he writes, "We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff."

"Somebody's gotta tell the truth," Iacocca said. "I'm 82 now. I love this country. I was born here. I'm a patriot. And I don't like what's happening to the country. There's something wrong. A lot wrong."

"'Stay the course'? You've got to be kidding," he writes in the book. "This is America, not the damned Titanic."

Ironically, Iacocca, who's known his share of presidents, actually voted for Mr. Bush in 2000.

"I campaigned for him, George Bush," he said. "There's nothing personal here. It's just that I stated from my heart what I thought was important."

After the first year, Iacocca decided the president was in over his head, and campaigned for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004. Twenty years ago, many thought Iacocca should make a run for the White House himself, against President Bush's father.

"Yeah, I read a couple of surveys at that time and they said, face-to-face against George Bush Senior, I would win," he said.

As the walls of his study show, the man who created the Ford Mustang and the minivan has been on more magazine covers than most politicians.

Campaign money had been raised, but Iacocca, hesitating, turned to his good friend, Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, for advice.

"And I said, 'Tip, what do you think about me running for President?'" Iacocca said. "And he said, 'Of what?' Typical Irishman, ya know, he laughed. He said, 'Are you crazy? You gotta be nuts. You're a businessman. You don't have the temperament for it.'"

In his heart, Iacocca knew O'Neill was right.

"And I gave the money back that weekend," he said. "I knew my strengths and weaknesses, and I couldn't have been a good president."

As CEO of the struggling Chrysler, Iacocca made headlines by cutting his salary to $1 a year. He calls today's CEO salaries "scandalous." The reason it happens, he said, is greed.

"Greed. Of the seven sins is only one that I worry about," he said. "Greed."

Of course, in 1986, Iacocca himself was the highest-paid CEO in America, pulling in a $20 million paycheck, after Chrysler stock soared. But that he says was "pay for performance."

Iacocca thinks that his former company's recent merger with the German company Daimler was a disaster. "How could they take Walter Chrysler's venerable company and name it after a German?" he writes." But Iacocca admits it was his own hand-picked successor, Robert Eaton, who helped engineer the merger.

"Yep. I made a mistake, yeah," he said. "Big time. Biggest mistake of my life." Eaton, he writes, "took the money and ran."

But two years ago, Iacocca went back to work for his old company as a pitchman in an unlikely pairing with rapper Snoop Dog. He donated the $5 million they paid him to research for a cure for diabetes, the disease that took his first wife, Mary, in 1983.

He's had two failed marriages since, and many of his retirement ventures haven't worked out very well, either.

"I guess trying to be an entrepreneur was different than running a big corporation," he said. "I wasn't good at entrepreneurship."

The star CEO still leads a comfortable life in his California home. He even has a new favorite TV show: "Dancing with the Stars."

"I actually called in," he said. "I think I got three votes. I like the way the girls are dressed. They're good dancers, too."

Iacocca has done some dancing with the stars himself, of course. And with his new book, he's cutting in for one more turn on the floor.

[harp1963]

I'm with Lee, throw the bums out. Impeach them. They proclaim their great economy with low unemployment. It's the "Plantaion Owner Economy." That's when everyone is working for nothing and 1% of Americans control all the wealth. These people need to read the book, "All I ever needed to know, I learned in kindergarten."

[bellal-2009]

Or better yet, tax them like there's no tomorrow then throw them in jail. How many hard working families have worked for a company for generations only to have some slick two bit low life scum bag CEO come in and decimate the company then move on with hundreds of millions.

[bellal-2009]

He calls today's CEO salaries "scandalous." The reason it happens, he said, is greed.


They are. They should be run out of the country. They have raped and pillaged and sold America down the river. Deport them, jail them, lynch them. Whatever, just get rid of them.

[bm6005]

I call upon the generation like me that is under 30 to seek out ways to take our country back from BIG OIL & the rest of corporate America.
Posted by ndg1979

Commendable idea. Now just get your generation to stop buying foreign cars under the pretext that they're "better" I drive only American cars. I do ALL my own repairs and I've never experienced that the foreign cars are any better (yes, I've owned several). They all break depending on the care you give them. Everyone needs to stop being yuppies and buying these upscale neighbor impressors. When your job goes overseas you'll understand!! Mine did.

[jetlizhan]

i went to school with his 2nd wife, Peggy and she said if he was anything, he was a straight shooter and told it like it was - popular opinion or not. i agree.

[rhs648]

The $1.00 per year salary was a great gimmick. It made him sound like a hero to the workers. As an insider, he had to know that he would be amply rewarded. Iacocca is a shrewd showman who knows how to play the game.

[stevex47]

I knew he was a smart guy. Wow.

[walt1944-2009]

Iacoca is right on when he talks about the greedy upper managers who are getting rich charging high prices and pocketing the profits. I have worked for many a CEO, CFO, Exec Vice Pres., who sat and read the Wall Street Journal all day, or made totally stupid decisions which affected every other worker's livlihood for the worse just so long as they got their big pay, perks, and fat bonuses. Greed runs amok in the upper management sphere and we are all paying for these "ten cent millionares" to lead the American dream while everyone eats dirt.

[frb01]

Lee is the ultimate car guy, from the Mustang in the 60's to working with a less flashy product in the 80's, the mini-van, re-introducing the convertible, experimenting with some other Chrysler products, bringing Carroll Shelby to Chrysler for a while etc. Detroit has come a long way in terms of building the product, needs to do a better job, but certainly there is a place for Lee to put his input on the fun cars,

[ndg1979]

Thanks Lee for telling it like it is. I'll be buying that book soon. I feel bad that companies that call themselves "American" are just the opposite. I call upon the generation like me that is under 30 to seek out ways to take our country back from BIG OIL & the rest of corporate America.