They could be heroes.

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

Detroit. While doing my daily wandering through the wilderness called the auto industry, observing the ebb and flow that’s resolutely punctuated by the constant disruptions offered up by the entrenched bureaucratic quagmire otherwise known as “the system” - I often wonder why there’s such a dearth of genuine leadership in this business.

Or, more pointedly, why is it that greatness is so elusive? Why is it that doing The Right Thing in this business is never actually about doing The Right Thing, but instead becomes a witless dance of obfuscation, misdirection and eventually, desperation?

The logical explanation for it is that the business has changed, and that to expect leaders of the caliber of the leaders back in the glory days – an era I referred to as “When Giants Roamed the Earth” in The United States of Toyota – is expecting too much.

But that’s too simplistic. Yes, the business has changed, as much as this country has changed. America on an upward trajectory fueled an automobile business that aimed just as high. The result? Leaders emerged. Risks were taken. Conference room tables were pounded on. Bold moves were made. And the American automobile business bristled with creativity, vision and passion. And the resulting cars exuded confidence and exuberance and were compelling machines for the most part, and it was good.

But this isn’t a column about how things were better back then. Yes, in a lot of ways they were, but that was then and this is now.

What happened? How did we end up with the leaders we have? Or as Tom Chiarella so eloquently put it in Esquire’s 80^th Anniversary issue (October), “Where did all these assholes come from?”

There’s plenty of blame to pass around, of course. One easy culprit is the emergence of the importance of the MBA, which has resulted in swarms of MBA-wielding pinheads being unleashed on the business who think having the degree immediately imparts a corresponding knowledge, savvy and gravitas. And we know from excruciating experience that is not the case, in fact it’s exactly the opposite.

Then again this is not a screed meant to disparage or dismiss all of those who tote around MBA degrees, because there are hordes of them who actually do know what they’re doing. But there’s no denying that the emergence of the MBA factor in the auto business has not been a good thing overall.

The other easy target is the financial administrative cloud holding sway over the business. We know what they’re called and for once I will not use that term, but it’s no secret that when misguided financial types are given a more prominent role in the process of designing, building and selling automobiles than they deserve, bad things usually happen. (We only have to look as far as the “old” GM, which allowed the financial function to get so out of control that it damn near wrecked the company all by itself, even before the bankruptcy.)

But mediocrity isn’t bliss, and the American automakers found out the hard way that producing dumbed-down vehicles that were massaged by accounting minions for profitability above all resulted in uncompetitive cars and trucks geared to the lowest common denominator. And these vehicles had about as much appeal in the market as tofu-encrusted French fries.

That’s all well and good in this short history of how the American automobile industry got so screwed up, but businesses overrun by MBAs and accounting types run amuck is endemic in corporate America and has been for some time. That still doesn’t explain The Rise of the Asshole in the automobile business.

Think about that for a moment. When did all of this get so sideways? When did this business get so off-track that so-called “executives” who couldn’t manage a convenience store are handed the keys to some of the biggest conglomerates in the world and immediately called leaders?

Is there a secret finishing school somewhere where these lesser lights are groomed for future assignments? Is there a PhD in Automotive Assholeism that I’m unaware of?

As funny as that may sound, no, there’s no double-secret finishing school, no conspiracy in the back woods, no underground bunker, no “black-ops” operatives grooming executives to wreak guaranteed havoc on the auto industry for years to come. It’s not that colorful or calculated.

Instead, it’s just due to a simple, yet devastating formula, which goes something like this: Inertia + Pure, Unadulterated Boneheaded Thinking + A Runaway Egomaniacal Mindset x A Totally Inept Board of Directors = Automotive Assholeism at its finest.

There’s a dearth of real leaders in this business because we, collectively, have allowed it. When you have incompetence running rampant on your typical Board of Directors, of course they’re going to make a bad decision and of course the wrong person will get the job. You can count on it and we’ve seen it time and time again.

Former Daimler honcho Jurgen Schrempp was the prototype of the modern inept CEO, as he set records for incompetence that may never be broken. He was the guy who thought the “Merger of Equals” between Daimler and Chrysler was a good idea, squandering $36 billion of his company’s money in just eight years. And that was just the tip of the iceberg of his meddlesome mediocrity.

Today we’re blessed with a brace of CEOs who have control over automotive empires for no apparent reason other than that they were in the right place at the right time. You know the two most visible examples of that without me even mentioning them. They’re both expert at taking credit for things they had nothing to do with, and they’re both runway egomaniacs who have somehow been gifted the reins of two of the three domestic automakers. One is a mercenary masquerading as genius, and the other is a carpetbagging fool who has no business being within 1,000 miles of this business. Need I say what they both have their PhD in?

No, probably not.

Yes, it’s a different time and a different era now, I get it. Gravitas is awarded to executives seemingly out of a vending machine, just for showing up in fact. And the lazy media hordes bestow reverential treatment on people who don’t deserve it, but who are quick to wallow in it anyway. It’s the “You’re Here So You Must Be Smart and Important” principle. And it’s disgraceful. Overnight, smoke and mirrors have become viable substitutes for substance and depth of knowledge, and it’s all a shameless dance that has become disconcerting and relentlessly depressing.

Yes, there are still leaders out there. There is even greatness too. I see it in the trenches and in some executive suites. I see it in the eyes of the True Believers at every level, the ones who make this business hum and churn and shine. They are the ones who go the extra mile on behalf of a vehicle program, the ones who search for the suspension tweak that will bring perfection, the ones who massage a design so it just looks and feels right, the ones who search for a compelling way to get the message to the consumer that isn’t boring or expected.

And they are, on occasion, blessed with leadership that inspires them to keep grinding and to keep the faith and to stand on the gas and to strive for greatness, like that indefatigable and gifted CEO in Dearborn, Alan Mulally. He’s a genuine hero providing true leadership in a business that’s craving it, and it’s just too bad there aren’t more like him.

But true leaders are difficult to find in this business today, and heroes and heroic behavior even harder still. And it’s sad and just not right on so many levels, especially in a business that boasts such an illustrious history of swashbuckling leaders who pushed and cajoled and willed everyone around them to do great things and to achieve excellence.

This business deserves better from its leaders. It deserves people who are unafraid to lead and who know where the business needs to go.

Indeed they could be heroes.

Instead…

And that’s the High-Octane Truth for this week.