This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

Tim Luliet has been on our show before.

Here's Robbie with the story.

Tim Luliet started his career at Ford Motor Company, where he caught the eye of Lee Iyakoka,

the man responsible for the development of the Ford Mustang and Ford Pinto, who has been named the 18th greatest American CEO of all time.

I came across Lee Iakoke at a very young age, because I saw what I was doing, moved me from engineering to sort of the product planning activity.

Product planning was one of the greatest educations I've ever had my life.

Every Friday they have a part one and a part two. You would have five minutes to present your proposal to management and they'd be walking.

There may be 30, 40 of these lined up in styling.

It could be as much as a change in the color of the grill to a whole car or anything in between.

And you had five minutes to sort of make your stand, make your position known,

and things would then work their way up through the process.

But you were dealing with senior management.

I would sit there and go in and sometimes go to work on a Monday and not come home until like Thursday.

I mean, you just sleep at your desk.

It was an intense place.

About 50% of all the vice presidents and executives that Ford had come through product planning.

There was only 80 of us in product planning.

You set up and, you know, an executive would walk in and you say, my proposal is as follows, the variable cost is X, the capital cost is Y, our marketing plan is Z.

And this is what our competitive reaction is going to be. We anticipate and we recommend approval.

And you'd have to have your story down and your variable costs better be right and your capital better be right.

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