Quotes By Lee Iacocca

The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.

I guess I invented extended warranties, because that's all we had to sell at Chrysler in those days.

Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can't be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people.

The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.

The one word that makes a good manager - decisiveness.

Chrysler builds great cars.

A guy named Charlie Beacham was my first mentor at Ford. He taught me the importance of the dealers, and he rubbed my nose in the retail business.

The trick is to make sure you don't die waiting for prosperity to come.

If a guy is over 25 percent jerk, he's in trouble. And Henry was 95 percent.

We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?

No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?

The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow human being.

I have found that being honest is the best technique I can use. Right up front, tell people what you're trying to accomplish and what you're willing to sacrifice to accomplish it.

If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's most important and then give it all you've got.

What is wrong with changing your mind because the facts changed? But you have to be able to say why you changed your mind and how the facts changed.

Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can't miss.

It was emotional when Chrysler sold out to the Germans.

Management is nothing more than motivating other people.

In a corporation, there can only be one guy in the end: the CEO.

One of the things the government can't do is run anything. The only things our government runs are the post office and the railroads, and both of them are bankrupt.

There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.

There are times when even the best manager is like the little boy with the big dog, waiting to see where the dog wants to go so he can take him there.

I always go back to Harry Truman: Should we drop an atomic bomb to save 100,000 lives? That's a hell of a decision to make. Did he make that decision by himself? No, he had advisers.

The most successful businessman is the man who holds onto the old just as long as it is good, and grabs the new just as soon as it is better.

People want economy and they will pay any price to get it.

We at Chrysler borrow money the old-fashioned way. We pay it back.

Talk to people in their own language. If you do it well, they'll say, 'God, he said exactly what I was thinking.' And when they begin to respect you, they'll follow you to the death.

You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere.

I have always found that if I move with seventy-five percent or more of the facts that I usually never regret it. It's the guys who wait to have everything perfect that drive you crazy.

I was at Ford for 32 years. I went to Chrysler in 1978, four or five months after I got canned by Henry Ford.