Lynn Townsend’s hubris led to Chrysler’s decline in 1969-70

“It has become fashionable to assume that when a company does a multibillion-dollar business, there is little that one man — even the man at the top — can do to sway its fortunes. ‘These large corporations are pretty much run on the committee system,’ remarks a financial analyst. ‘There’s no way you can attach the blame for failure to any particular person.’ If Chrysler’s performance last year is taken as the case in point, it would seem that there is some truth to that statement — but only some.

Lynn Townsend did not, for example, personally sketch the C-body designs that were to prove so feeble in the marketplace. On the other hand, he let those designs develop into full-fledged cars; he could have stopped them, had he wished. He could have introduced flexibility into his assembly plants before a crisis showed him the wisdom of such a step. He could have stopped producing big cars before the inventories – not to mention the discounts to dealers — reached record size. He could have paced the 1969 new-car program so that the pre-production tests did not have to be rushed. He could have ordered a gradual, rather than a massive, conversion of the computerized production system.

All this is being said, of course, with the benefit of twenty-twenty hindsight. But the point is that this is the same Lynn Townsend who previously had raised Chrysler from the ashes, never missing a trick along the way. And, with few exceptions, Townsend’s staff was the same one that assisted him in that chore. When the head man fell victim to hubris, however, it was inevitable that those under him would relax as well.”

— Forbes magazine (1970)

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RE:SOURCES

• Forbes; 1970. “Chrysler’s private hard times.” April issue. Reposted on forcbodiesonly.com. Accessed July 24, 2023.

ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:

• oldcarbrochures.org: Chrysler (1970)

Also see ‘1969-71 Chrysler: An Exner idea fumbled again’