IACOCCA An Autobiography

Leadership Means Setting an Example.
How did Lee Iacocca set an Example of Leadership

The book is : Iacocca - An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca

Let me talk straight; this book is all about automobiles, automobiles and automobiles. What I mean by that is, it all revolves around GM, Ford, Chrysler and not to forget some Japanese giants. It is truly an autobiography, not a case study. It starts from his birth, to schooling, getting a job in Ford, being fired from Ford, joining Chrysler and rest as they say is History.

It will be most useful from management point of view, but also if, you are somehow related to manufacturing or auto industry. So! what I as an under grad computer science engineer have learned from this book is more then the above mentioned beneficiaries. We as an undergrad always wondered how such corporate ’’honchos’’ are able to do such great things in life. All we try to know is how are their persona, what are their daily routines, how do they interact and of course how do they make a balance between their social and work life. No book is going to tell us this in detail. For that we need to be present with them like a shadow :). What we should learn from this book is how should we maintain our calm and composure at times when we are facing the worst phase of our life.

People are no GOOD or BAD. Its the situation that makes them and as the cliche goes ’’Time changes everything’’. Even people which are closest to our heart can not help us, and enemies can become best friends. How should we face the government and their laws ? How we should keep all the strings attached ? We should sometimes break the convention of business , and for that matter anything in life, when we have one leg in grave. Change is the only thing that is constant. Even Bill Gates is follower of Change.The top(opposite to bottom) line is : its all about management and priorities. But during stress it is very important to maintain confidence/courage, faith, tolerance/temper and patience/perseverance. I term this as the CFTP protocol . The main thing is, it affects our life and family. Hence it boils down to maintaining a universal Balance.

THIS BOOK IS A COMPLETE PACKAGE.

Excerpts :

01 - You’ll never really know what happiness is unless you have something to compare it to. -If someone is bigger than you are, don’t fight back.

02 - Use your head instead of your fists.

03 - Life isn’t always going to be fair.

04 - The ability to concentrate and to use your time well is everything if you want to succeed in
business-or almost anywhere else,for that matter.

05 - 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.

06 - Establishing priorities and using your time well aren’t things you can pick up at the Harvard
Business School.

07 - Formal learning can teach you a great deal, but many of the essential skills in life are the ones you have to develop on your own.

08 - Mistakes area a part of life; you can’t avoid them. All you can hope is that they won’t be too
expensive and that you don’t make the same mistake twice.

09 - The dealers are really the only customers a company has.

10 - If you screw up, don’t give me any excuses-- go look at yourself in the mirror. Then come see me.

11 - When the product is right, you don’t have to be a great marketer.

12 - Whenever you’re trying to promote a brand name, your first task is to make clear where the brand is available.- As everyone knows, there are only two ways to make more money: you can sell more
goods or spend less on overhead.

13 - Styling and value are what sells cars, but QUALITY is what keeps them sold.- Leadership means setting an example.

14 - If everybody is suffering equally, you can move a mountain.

15 - Gasoline is the blood of the car industry, an interest rates are the oxygen.

Most important - Always think, first, in terms of the other person’s interest.

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Hummer H1 Alpha Concept (2001)

The Hummer H1 is a civilian vehicle based on the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), popularly known as the Humvee, which was created by AM General.

History

Originally released in the civilian market in 1992, the Hummer H1 owes its birth to the popularity of photos from Operation Desert Storm and the enthusiastic campaign from actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who personally owns several variants of Hummer vehicles. GM announced that 2006 would be the last model year for the Hummer H1 with production winding down in June 2006, due to a new emission laws for Diesel engine vehicles which take effect in 2007. No version of the Hummer H1 ever produced would meet these new standards. AM General currently has orders for an excess of 50,000 new HMMWVs to be produced between 2006-2009 for the United States Military. AM General also will continue to produce the H1, just not the Alpha. These vehicles will be sold through Fleet sales. The next H1 will most-likely bear a refined version of the prior 6.5L Turbo Diesel engine, but that has not been confirmed. Selling the H1's through fleet sales will allow the AM General to not be subjected to the new emission rules and regulations. AM General has sufficient fleet orders to produce 600-800 units per year right now.

Specifications

The Hummer H1 has three common variants: a convertible-like soft top, a four-door hard top pickup truck and a Wagon body version. Other less known variants include a two-door pickup truck and a four-door slantback. At this time, the convertible/soft top and the station wagon versions are the only ones available in the mass market. The two door and four door pickup versions are only available in fleet livery.

Five engine types and three automatic transmission types can be found in Hummer H1s. The common engine/transmission combinations are:

* 6.2 L Detroit Diesel V8/GM TH400/3L80 3-speed
* 6.5 L Detroit Diesel V8/GM 4L80-E 4-speed
* 5.7 L Vortec 5700 gasoline V8 TBI/GM 4L80-E 4-speed
* 6.5 L turbo Detroit Diesel V8/GM 4L80-E 4-speed
* 6.6 L Duramax LLY turbo Diesel/Allison 1000 5-speed (model year 2006)

The Hummer H1 shares some common driveline parts with its HMMWV brethren. Items like brakes, differentials, frame and major body panels (hood, tailgate and quarter panels) are identical between the HMMWV and the Hummer H1. All Hummer H1s and HMMWVs come off the same first stage assembly line, and then are separated midway to either become a military HMMWV or a civilian H1.

Hummer H1s are unique in the way they handle off road. They are inherently very stable, thanks to their wide stance. They also can ford 30 inches (76 cm) of water, climb a 22-inch (56 cm) step, have a stock ground clearance of 16 inches (41 cm) (thanks to its design of tucking driveline components inside a channel, which subsequently intrudes into the cabin space of the vehicle), have approach/departure angles of 72/37.5 degrees and most H1s are equipped with Central Tire Inflation System (CTIS), which enables the driver to increase or decrease the tire air pressure at will.

Hummer H1s have many unusual features. They use inboard brakes. They have geared hubs, allowing the drivetrain's half shafts to be up high for greater clearance. The radiator is up high, sloping back over the engine. Rather than using simple runflat tires, aluminum or rubber inserts are an optional feature for runflat ability. A central tire inflation system is available as an option. Chemical warfare resistant paint is available only on the military version.

Price

Price is projected to be around US$129,399 for the open-top, and US$140,796 for the wagon.

Hummer Humvee Military Vehicle (2003)

The M998 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV or Humvee) is a highly durable military motor vehicle. It has largely supplanted the role formerly served by the Jeep and other light trucks with the United States military, and is also used by a number of other countries and organizations.

Features

There are at least 17 variants of the HMMWV in service with the United States armed forces. HMMWV serve as cargo/troop carriers, automatic weapons platforms, ambulances (four litter patients or eight ambulatory patients), M220 TOW missile carriers, M119 howitzer prime movers, M-1097 Avenger Pedestal Mounted Stinger platforms, MRQ-12 direct air support vehicles, S250 shelter carriers among many others. It is capable of fording 2.5 ft (76 cm) normally, or 5 ft (1.5 m) with the deep-water fording kit installed.

Optional equipment includes a winch (maximum load capacity 6000 lb. (2700 kg)), and supplemental armor. The M1025 and M1043/M1044 armament carriers provide mounting and firing capabilities for the MK19 grenade launcher, the M2 machine gun, the M240G machine gun and M249 SAW. The newly introduced M1114 "up-armored" HMMWV also features a similar weapons mount. Recently, there is also a new type of the HMMWV introduced featuring a CROWS (crew served optical weapons station), which lets the machine gunner operate from inside the vehicle.

History

In the 1970s, the United States Army concluded that the militarized civilian trucks in use no longer satisfied their requirements. In 1977, Lamborghini developed the Cheetah model to attempt to meet Army contract specifications. In 1979, the Army drafted final specifications for a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, or HMMWV. In July of that year, AM General began preliminary design work, and less than a year later, the first prototype, the M998, was in testing.

In June 1981, the Army awarded AM General a contract for development of several more prototype vehicles to be delivered to the U.S. government for another series of tests, and the company was later awarded the initial production contract for 55,000 HMMWVs to be delivered in 1985. HMMWVs first saw combat in Operation Just Cause, the US invasion of Panama in 1989.

They have become the backbone of U.S. forces around the world. Over 10,000 were used during Operation Iraqi Freedom by U.S. forces as well as some other countries during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

One US Humvee was captured by the Yugoslav Army during the Kosovo war and is currently on display in front of the Military Museum building on Kalemegdan Fortress Park, Belgrade, Serbia.

In Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Humvee has proved vulnerable to IED. As of early 2006, total losses were at 250 Humvees. One Humvee was destroyed in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict killing the three IDF soldiers inside and led up to the two captured IDF soldiers, it was hit by a Hezbollah rocket propelled grenade

Usage in Iraq and political implications

The HMMWV has proven very vulnerable to light infantry weapons as far back as the Somalia intervention; in its defense, it was never designed to offer such protection. With the rise of asymmetric warfare and low-intensity conflicts, the HMMWV has found itself thrust into urban combat roles it was not originally intended for. Although the large variety of HMMWV types is a testament to the vehicle's adaptability to changing mission conditions, it was never designed to be an armored personnel carrier (APC).

As it is not an armored vehicle, HMMWVs are very vulnerable to rocket propelled grenades and offer the troops within little protection from small arms fire. Although there are several armor kits available for the vehicle which afford it greater protection from small-arms fire, these were not provided in great numbers to American forces in Iraq prior to the invasion. As a result of this, American soldiers and Marines often improvise extra armor layers with scrap materials (also known as "hillbilly armor") to improve the safety of the HMMWV. While "hardening" or "up-armoring" their vehicles with sandbags, metal, and plywood does make the vehicles arguably safer, it also slows them down. It has also been argued that hardening simply creates more shrapnel when attacked with an RPG or improvised explosive device. This extra hardening further hampered the ability of the M998 and M1025 due to the addition of excess weight which overloaded the suspension and drivetrain components of these HMMWVs. Performance issues due to the high center of gravity and extra weight of up-armoring kits increase the risk of sway and rollover. Unlike similar-size civilian cargo and tow trucks, which typically have dual rear wheels to reduce sway, the HMMWV has single rear wheels. The independent rear suspension coupled with the body design may preclude "dually" fitment which is the standard for solid-axle trucks of that weight range.

In response to the perceived vulnerability of HMMWVs operating in Iraq, the U.S. Department of Defense contracted AM General to make the M1114 Uparmored HMMWV. The M1114 has been in limited production since 1996 and had seen limited use in the Balkans before deployment to the Middle East. This design has a larger, more powerful engine with a turbocharger, air conditioning and a strengthened suspension and boasts a fully armored passenger area protected by hardened steel and bullet-proof glass. With the increase in direct attacks and guerilla warfare in Iraq AM General has diverted the majority of its manufacturing power to producing these vehicles.

In December 2004, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld came under criticism from U.S. soldiers and their families for not providing better equipped HMMWV. Rumsfeld pointed out that, prior to the war, armor kits were produced only in small numbers per year. As the role of American forces in Iraq changed from fighting the Iraqi Army to suppressing the guerrilla insurgency, armor kits were being manufactured as fast as additional production facilities could be brought online. Armor aggravates the severe inherent performance limitations of a light truck with independent suspension, but it does offer improved protection. Other countries experienced in urban war such as Russia and Israel rely on tracked armored personnel carriers, but the wheeled HMMWV fits current anti-track sentiment among Army senior leadership as exemplified by the Stryker and other wheeled systems.

Weaknesses

As an unarmoured vehicle it is vulnerable to about any weapon capable of hitting it. As a primary threat, RPG's can penetrate and thus completely annihilate an HMMWV. As a secondary threat, AK47-fire reportedly sometimes makes it to the inside, and is still capable of wounding passengers. This is mostly when the 7.62 mm bullets are fired from a short distance, and is also depending where exactly the vehicle is struck. Besides fire from foot-soldiers, it is also very vulnerable to road side bombs (IEDs and land mines), as proven in Iraq. The armor on most up-armored humvees holds up well against lateral (from the side) blasts when the blast is distributed in all different directions, but runs a greater risk of a mobility or catastrophic kill when struck by a blast from beneath. Also the person mounting the machine gun on the top of the vehicle is extremely vunerable to enemy fire.

Replacement

The US government is seeking a replacement for the AM General truck, and the U.S. Army's Tank and Automotive Command is currently refereeing a prototype competition. Navistar International and Lockheed Martin are participating, while AM General has not been selected. The Navistar entry is based on their International CXT line, and this truck has already been prototyped to replace the HMMWV for non-military use by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and Border Patrol.

The Marine Corps is also looking into replacements for the HMMWV. The Office of Naval Research is funding Georgia Tech's ULTRA AP, a combat concept vehicle based on the F350 chassis, but with a radical "blast bucket" passenger compartment, and Ultra 3T, a project with more advanced (but unproven) technologies.

Humvee replicas

Due to the popularity of the Humvee, there have been kits produced for building a humvee-replica yourself. The kits do not allow you to build a humvee from scratch (kitcar), they do allow you to rebuild a sedan to a humvee-lookalike, alternatively one can also just buy a preconstructed (or turnkey) wombat. Various kits probably exist, but the most famous is the "Wombat" (-or previous HummBug). The former vehicle can be purchased for $18,000.00, considerably cheaper than the actual Humvee ($56,400.00), or Hummer.

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