Bob Lutz, leadership, and good times…

I know a lot of you folks like to read (why else would you be reading the CSC blog?) and a lot of you are gearheads (same question…why else would you be reading the CSC blog?).

With that in mind, I’ll step out on a limb and make a book recommendation.  Every once in a while I find a book that’s so outstanding I feel compelled to tell other folks about it, and this is one of those times.

I just finished reading Car Guys versus Bean Counters by Bob Lutz.   I bought it a few months ago when I saw it in an airport bookstore while I was on one of my many secret missions, and I finally got around to reading it last week.  Bob Lutz is a certifiable gearhead with the credentials and experience to back it up…he’s held very senior positions with Ford, BMW, Chrysler, and General Motors.  Car Guys versus Bean Counters is mostly about his experiences at GM.  GM brought Mr. Lutz back to help the company find its way again…which is another way of saying that his job was to help GM conceive, develop, and make cars people would want to buy.

A lot of you guys and gals are my age, and you know that in the 1950s and 1960s, GM was absolutely ahead of the rest of the world (I think ahead of the entire world) at producing cars that were exciting.  Think 1955 Chevys, the Pontiac GTO, Corvettes, the Corvette Stingray, the Olds Toronado and Cadillac El Dorado, the 1959 Coupe de Ville (love those fins!), the SS 396 Chevelle, the El Camino, the Camaro, the Buick Riviera, and, well, you get the idea.  It was the golden age for American automobile production and a great time to be a teenager, and GM was at the top of the heap.  Then the company lost its way, and the cars GM cranked out in the mid-70s and beyond were (in my opinion) just awful.

Lutz explains that the reasons behind GM’s fall from glory was not just the financial folks (the “bean counters”), but a pre-occupation with committee-based design efforts that bred a culture of mediocrity.   He makes a strong case for strong-willed leaders who design cars based on their instincts and a connection with the product, not what cost reduction, producibility, and all of the other “ilities” committees will approve.    The good news is that GM is on the way back, and I think you can see that in their new cars.   I especially like what’s being offered by Cadillac and Chevy (I’ve always been a Chevy man).  I love my Subie (it’s one of the best cars I’ve ever owned), but there’s nothing on four wheels more exciting than my Z-06 Corvette.  It’s American made, with the right look and the right sound.  Just like my California Scooter.

As I read the book, I thought about California Scooter Company and why it’s different than any of the other companies I’ve been around.   In Car Guys versus Bean Counters, Bob Lutz basically made the case for having a guy just like Steve Seidner making the design and styling decisions in companies that make exciting products.   I think you’ve seen that in our bikes…from the stock Babydoll, Greaser, Classic, and Babydoll models, all the way to our land speed record bike, the John Deere bike, the Silver Ghost, and many more.  Our bikes get people excited.  You can see it when they buy a California Scooter, you can see it when they ride our bikes, and you can see it in the photos our riders share with us (I’ve got more great photos I’ll post from our buddy Howard’s epic 4-month road trip next week, but in the meantime, you can catch a glimpse of Howard and his CSC in Glacier National Park in the collage below…and trust me, the smile is real).

Steve and a Greaser drawing inspiration from a P-51 Mustang

Good times...clockwise from upper left it's our very own movie star Lupe on a red Classic, Howard in Glacier National Park with his red Classic, two fellows admiring Steve's personal Sarge at the LA Roadster Show, the Silver Ghost, and Sylvain at speed setting the 150cc land speed record

Folks, there’s more custom stuff coming down the CSC pipe line.   Great stuff.  Stuff I can’t tell you about yet.  Stuff that wasn’t designed by a committee.  Stuff that will excite you.

Stay tuned.