When Lee Iacocca's Chrysler was struggling, he told the unions, 'If you don't help me out, I'm going to blow your brains out. I'll declare bankruptcy in the morning, and you'll all be out of work.' What does this exemplify?
Explanation
This question uses a specific, powerful quote from the text to test the reader's ability to classify leadership styles according to the chapter's definitions.
Other questions
According to the book, what is the primary purpose of bureaucracy and hierarchy in most companies?
What two complementary forces, when combined, are described as creating a 'magical alchemy of superior performance'?
According to the 'Good-to-Great Matrix of Creative Discipline,' a great organization is characterized by what?
What is the primary lesson from the 'rinsing your cottage cheese' story about triathlete Dave Scott?
How many times did world-class athlete Dave Scott, the inspiration for the 'rinsing your cottage cheese' factor, win the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon?
What is the crucial distinction the chapter makes between a 'culture of discipline' and 'tyrannical' leadership?
What action did Carl Reichardt take at Wells Fargo that exemplified 'rinsing your own cottage cheese'?
After Ray MacDonald retired from Burroughs in 1977, what happened to the company's cumulative stock returns by the year 2000?
What is the most important form of discipline for achieving sustained great results?
What is the primary message of the airline pilot analogy used in the chapter?
How did George Rathmann, founder of Amgen, avoid the 'entrepreneurial death spiral'?
What was the core principle of the 'Responsibility Accounting' system at Abbott Laboratories?
At its innovation peak, what percentage of revenues did Abbott Laboratories derive from new products introduced in the previous four years?
What is a 'stop doing' list, as exemplified by Darwin Smith at Kimberly-Clark?
Under the leadership of Stanley Gault, Rubbermaid beat the market 3.6 to 1. What happened to the company's value relative to the market after he departed?
What paradox about discipline does the chapter emphasize for great companies?
What was R.J. Reynolds' critical lack of discipline, in contrast to Philip Morris, after the 1964 surgeon general's report?
What happens when a company has disciplined action without disciplined people and disciplined thought?
What was the result of Lee Iacocca's 'highly undisciplined diversifications' in the second half of his tenure at Chrysler?
How did the good-to-great companies use budgeting differently from typical companies?
What was the mechanism Darwin Smith at Kimberly-Clark used to combat 'title creep' and bureaucratic layering?
According to the chapter, which of these unsustained comparison companies was led by the Level 4 tyrant Ray MacDonald?
What does the chapter claim is the single most important form of discipline for sustained results, a point summarized in the Key Points section?
Why did the research team almost not include the chapter on discipline in the book?
What does the book suggest is the likely outcome for a company with a high ethic of entrepreneurship but a low culture of discipline?
How did Kimberly-Clark demonstrate its discipline after deciding to exit the paper business?
What is the paradox of opportunity for a company that stays within its three circles?
What was the critical error made by the unsustained comparison companies regarding discipline?
According to the chapter, why do good-to-great companies often appear 'boring and pedestrian' from the outside?
How much more did Warner-Lambert, the comparison company, spend on consumer-goods advertising than on R&D while trying to be like the R&D-heavy Merck?
What was the estimated loss for Chrysler on its joint venture with Italian sports car maker Maserati?
When Bank of America was in a crisis period, a board member made sensible suggestions like 'Sell the corporate jet.' What was the outcome?
What is the key insight about the order of building a great company, as mentioned in Chapter 6?
In the comparison between Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, what was the disciplined approach Philip Morris took to its Hedgehog Concept after the 1964 surgeon general's report?
What is the danger of a tyrannical disciplinarian like Stanley Gault or Lee Iacocca, even if they produce spectacular initial results?
Between 1964 and 1989, how did a one dollar investment in Philip Morris compare to a one dollar investment in R. J. Reynolds?
Why do great companies need a 'stop doing' list in addition to a 'to do' list?
What paradoxical challenge does a disciplined company face regarding growth opportunities?
In the Good-to-Great Matrix, an organization with a high culture of discipline but a low ethic of entrepreneurship is described as what?
What was the core reason that the discipline imposed by leaders like Ray MacDonald at Burroughs was not sustained?
How did Nucor's approach to its culture of discipline differ from that of Bethlehem Steel?
What is the fact that something is a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity' to a good-to-great company?
How many consecutive years of positive profitability did Nucor post from 1966 to 1999, a period during which Bethlehem Steel lost money twelve times?
In the 1982 recession, Nucor worker pay went down 25 percent. By what percentage did the CEO's pay go down?
In the comparison between the sustained discipline of good-to-great companies and the unsustained discipline of comparison companies, what was the key difference?
What was the 'somewhat puzzling strategy' that Warner-Lambert employed in 1987 while trying to be more like Merck?
What does the author suggest is the primary reason that few successful start-ups become great companies?
In the 1970s, what was Darwin Smith's rationale for unplugging Kimberly-Clark from all paper industry trade associations?
The chapter argues that great companies are more likely to die from what?
What was the final point of failure for Warner-Lambert, a company that lurched between different strategies for years?