Iacocca: An Autobiography is the fascinating story of Lee Iacocca, a business legend. He helped shape Ford into the number two US auto maker and then saved Chrysler from going out of business. In this book, Iacocca reveals the situations he faced and the management magic he performed to make both companies into good performers.

Lido Anthony Iacocca was born to Italian immigrant parents. He and his sister grew up in a warm, loving and nurturing environment. He married Mary in 1956 and they had two daughters, Kathi and Lia. Lee always remained a family man. No matter how hard he worked or how far he rose in the ranks of management, he always devoted weekends and vacations to his family.

Lee obtained his education at Lehigh University and then received a fellowship for graduate study at Princeton University. After school, he went to work for Ford. After nine months in their training program, he decided he wanted to be in sales and secured a position in a district sales office in Pennsylvania. From there, he began his stellar rise through the ranks to become the head of the Ford Division in 1960. He and his team developed the Mustang, one of the most popular cars of all time.

Ten years later, Iacocca became president of the Ford Motor Company. He began having problems with Henry Ford II and was fired in October 1978. Two weeks later, he became the president of Chrysler, knowing that he would become CEO within a year.

Chrysler gave Iacocca the challenge of his life. The company was in serious trouble and suffered from gross mis-management. As soon as Iacocca formed his team there, the energy crisis occurred and the economy entered a severe recession, pushing Chrysler to the brink of collapse.

Iacocca describes how they saved the company, finally obtaining $1.2 billion in government loan guarantees. He describes the negotiations with government, labor, suppliers and more than four hundred lending institutions and how they worked together to make Chrysler profitable by 1983.

This book is more than just the success story of Chrysler and Lee Iacocca. He expressed his views on management style and on what's wrong with the American way of doing business. Iacocca expresses his views on how America can become stronger in world markets and what steps it must take.

Iacocca is easy, quick and fascinating reading. The reader will not want to put the book down and will find the time well spent.