Whiz Kid - Robert McNamara
Robert McNamara passed away this week at age 93. While both remembered and perhaps reviled as the Secretary of Defense during the VietNam war era, he had a profoundly positive impact on Ford Motor Company as the reigns of power changed from Henry Ford to his son, Henry Ford II.
McNamara graduated in 1937 from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor degree in economics. He went on to earn a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1939. After a short stint with Price Waterhouse, he returned to Harvard to teach and became the highest paid, youngest Assistant Professor at the time.
Following his involvement there in a program to teach business analytical approaches to officers of the Army Air Forces (AAF), he entered the Armed Forces as a captain in early 1943, serving most of the war with the AAF's Office of Statistical Control. He left active duty with the rank of lieutenant colonel and with a Legion of Merit.
|
|
"I was on leave from Harvard as an assistant professor during the three years I was in the military. And I wanted nothing more in the world than to go back to Harvard at the end of the war, and they made some very attractive offers to me to come back, in terms of the courses I could teach and so on," McNamara recalled in a 1996 interview with the Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley.
Both McNamara and his wife were stricken with polio in mid-1945. His recovery took only a couple months, but his wife was more severely affected. In November of 1945, McNamara was hired by 28-year old Henry Ford II and started work the following January. "I couldn't afford to pay her hospital bills on a Harvard professor's salary. So, I finally accepted an offer from Ford," he added.
McNamara was one of ten former World War II officers known within Ford as the "Whiz Kids", who helped the company to stop its losses and administrative chaos by implementing modern planning, organization, and management control systems.
"At that time, out of the top 1,000 executives at Ford Motor Company, there were very, very few college graduates -- let's say on the order of, literally, a handful. And Henry Ford II wanted some individuals, the ten of us, who were young, presumably well educated, and whom he could depend upon to take a fresh look at the company and advise him accordingly."
By 1948 McNamara had assumed the role of leader of the Whiz Kids and was clearly on a trajectory to the top. By 1955, he was general manager of Ford Division.
In the mid-1950s, McNamara opposed Ford's planned Edsel automobile and worked to stop the program even before the first car rolled off the assembly line. He eventually succeeded in ending the program in November, 1959. McNamara would drive to market the Ford Falcon sedan, which he saw as small, simple and inexpensive to produce. The car proved immensely popular and was the basis for the 1964 Mustang.
McNamara also came close to terminating the Lincoln after the huge 1958-1960 models proved unpopular. His new, smaller Lincoln Continental was an instant hit and remains an icon among 60's automobiles.
During his time as an executive, McNamara also placed a high emphasis on safety, bringing to market the seat belt, dished steering wheel, padded dash board and other innovations.
On November 9, 1960, McNamara became the first president of Ford from outside the Ford family. He received substantial credit for Ford's expansion and success in the postwar period.
|
