Riding the Roller Coaster - Outside of a Dog

Published Feb. 1, 2003 by Wayne State University Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-8143-5220-5

Chrysler has had an impressive list of technological "firsts" throughout the years—including the Chrysler Six of 1924 and front-wheel-drive vehicles in the '70s and '80s, to name just two. While the company has catered well to a variety of consumers, it has also come to the brink of financial ruin more than once in its seventy-five-year history.

In Riding the Roller Coaster, author Charles K. Hyde takes readers into the board room and onto the factory lines to tell the story behind Chrysler's products, people, and performance. Outlining their history from the founding of the company through the major merger with Daimler-Benz, Hyde recounts the ups and downs of Chrysler's monumental success turned colossal financial failure and sharp recovery. He pays special attention to the company's leadership in automotive engineering, its styling successes and failures, and its changing management, including a special look at automotive powerhouses including Walter P. …

Chrysler has had an impressive list of technological "firsts" throughout the years—including the Chrysler Six of 1924 and front-wheel-drive vehicles in the '70s and '80s, to name just two. While the company has catered well to a variety of consumers, it has also come to the brink of financial ruin more than once in its seventy-five-year history.

In Riding the Roller Coaster, author Charles K. Hyde takes readers into the board room and onto the factory lines to tell the story behind Chrysler's products, people, and performance. Outlining their history from the founding of the company through the major merger with Daimler-Benz, Hyde recounts the ups and downs of Chrysler's monumental success turned colossal financial failure and sharp recovery. He pays special attention to the company's leadership in automotive engineering, its styling successes and failures, and its changing management, including a special look at automotive powerhouses including Walter P. Chrysler and Lee Iacocca.

2 editions

Ben Waber reviewed Riding the Roller Coaster by Charles K. Hyde

A Fascinating Corporate History

4 stars

This is an excellent history of the Chrysler corporation from its genesis to its merger with Daimler in the early 2000s, tracing its rapid change in fortune over the decades and how different management decisions and macro forces impacted the company. What stands out most was how each period of success led to organizational ossification and belief by the CEO that because of their earlier effectiveness that they were certainly the right person to continue on leading the company. I would've liked a bit more in the weeds analysis of particularly critical strategic decisions, but there is still a decent amount of market information incorporated here. Highly recommend

Ben Waber

rated it

April 19

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