British Leyland: Chronicle of a Car Crash 1968-1978 Paperback – Import, 12 June 2012

deel 2 vd serie van 3 . opkomst en ondergang vd britse auto industrie.

As a reader of many often rare books about British manufacturers in international rallying in the 1950s to 80s it was only a logical decision to buy this book about the desasters which crushed the honorable British car-industry in the 1970s. The unbelievable management-mistakes of the 60s and 70s, the recklessness of the unions and their members in the 70s and the carelessness (one could almost call it sabotage) of a high percentage of the workers in questions of product-quality played a huge part, membership in the EU finished it off for good. Of course not always easy to read for people whose English is not fluent, but very entertaining and highly recommended for those who are. When you have read this book you will not wonder anymore why "Top Gear" is usually making fun of the British car-industry and its products of these days. And also why German speaking people mocked British Leyland-product quality with the word-play "British Elend" (Elend = misery; pronouciation almost like Leyland, but don't spell the L).

Many years ago as an executive at Ford South Africa, I met a counterpart working for Leyland South Africa. We got chatting as car guys do and I asked him why his employer's cars were sold devoid of rust proofing when at Ford we took this very seriously as cars on the coast of South Africa could almost literally rust overnight. His answer shook me at the time and sparked a life-long interest in this tragic company: "We know about that problem but can't afford to fix it." I was thus delighted to encounter this book and devoured it avidly.The author traces the Via Dolorosa taken by this one-time giant of British manufacturing whose products could be once found on streets from San Francisco around the world to Auckland. As a ex-car executive, the author conducts a 360-degree dissection of the causes of this company's demise and since these factors cut across organisational functions and span varying time periods means no easy chronological sequencing is possible. This did not bother me as I've spent many years as a business doctor and could follow the themes and integrate them without difficulty.What I liked:1. The interplay of cause and effect was very well developed. The story is filled with facepalm moments [e.g. the Marina - a great car for 1966 to take on the Mk 2 Cortina, but not in 1972] and "What were they thinking?" inept decision making [e.g. putting into production the truly awful Maxi and abjectly failing to rationalize the ridiculous over-lapping, sales-cannibalizing product ranges]. This is indeed a key work in the field of economic history and management - and I loved it for that.2. The book provides an on-going series of leadership, general management, design engineering, business strategy and marketing case studies. An MBA class would benefit from being assigned this book for tutorial purposes.3. Management books of this type can be very dry, but this one is well-written and keeps the reader's attention throughout.4. I particularly enjoyed the author's global perspectives. His takes on the North American market [a poisoned honeypot] and that of Australia were excellent. No parochial British angle dominated the narrative - this was great.5. The author summed up well by presenting a set of findings, conclusions and "what-if?" recommendations with which I could not do anything but concur.What I disliked or thought could have been done better:Nothing in particular comes to mind. I think this is a splendid work.Incidentally my reply to my Leyland friend was "Can you afford not to?"

Il s'agirait plus, dans sa présentation, d'un mémoire de thèse plutôt qu'un véritable livre édité, mais qu'importe. Cela n'enlève rien au contenu, absolument passionnant sur la déroute de ce constructeur automobile qui aurait pu devenir le General Motors britannique. L'auteur a accompli un travail formidable, visiblement très bien documenté, sur lequel il a dû passer de longues heures pour recueillir toutes les données et dates sur le contexte de l'époque et le constructeur. Le livre m'a tenu en haleine de bout en bout. Dommage qu'il s'arrête en 1978, même si la suite est un peu évoquée... Bravo à l'auteur pour ce travail brillant qui faisait défaut jusqu'à présent.

Christopher Cowin has produced an excellent summary of British Leyland, from formation in 1968 to the eventual demise of Rover in 2005 (events past 1978 are covered, only not in as much detail). This is a book primarily for those interested in industry analysis, and the intricacies in running a large conglomerate, and less so for people primarily looking for details of cars or for the smell of petrol emanating from every page (for British Leyland products  British Leyland - The history, the engineering, the people (illustrated)  is closer to the latter brief). As such it is not overly long but very dense as a result - with lots to capture over the primary 10 year period, as well as lots of an aftermath to cover.The book covers the genesis of British Leyland, the political and economic environment leading to it (as well as the thinking that produced it), the operation of the company in an annual format, six key vehicles laucnhed during the British Leyland time, the international divisions and then includes an extensive aftermath section, an analysis of factors leading to BLs demise (as well as a final executive summary of the book) and a bibliography / further reading section.The author does not take the easy route of blaming either worker unrest, or poor quality, or political meddling on their own for the eventual downfall but really manages to bring across the whole intricate network of factors at play. At the same time he shows a very balanced understanding of why certain factors of 1960s and 1970s industrial Britain functioned the way they did and how they affected the automotive sector generally and BL in particular.If you want an elevator pitch of why BL failed, the book is most certainly not it; still it does an excellent job of building understanding of the complexity of an automotive multinational and is in my opinion well worth the time to read and digest. While it is unlikely that there will be another company that is subject to the same pressures and demands any time soon, there is an extreme richness of insight, which can very well be transfered to related cases.I would definitely recommend this book for both people generally interested in the automotive industry / manufacturing, as well as people interested in management more broadly. In my opinion this forms an excellent complement to  My Years with General Motors  and should be a component in any library on the automotive sector. British Leyland - The history, the engineering, the people (illustrated)My Years with General Motors