No easy job
Roy Chapin and American Motors,
January 1977 In january 1967, in an atmosphere of crisis, Roy Chapin was appointed
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer ofAmerican Motors (and William Luneburg,President and Chief Operating Officer). In the
four previous years, AMC unit sales had fallen 37 percent and market share from over 6 percent to under 3 percent. Dollar volume in 1967 was off 42 percent from the all-time high of 1963 and earnings showed a net loss of $76 million on sales of $656 million. Columnists began writing obituaries for AMC. Newsweek characterized AMC as “a flabby dispirited company, 21 product solid enough but styled with about as much flair as corrective shoes, and a public image that melted down to one unshakable label: loser.” Said Chapin: “We were driving with one foot on the accelerator and one foot on the brake. We didn’t know where the hell we were.” Chapin announced to his stockholders at the outset that “we plan to direct ourselves most specifically to those areas of the market where we can be fully effective. We are not going to attempt to be all things to all people, but to concentrate on those areas of consumer needs we can meet better than anyone else.” As he recalled: “There were problems early in 1967 which demanded immediate attention, and which accounted for much of our time for several months. Nevertheless, we began planning beyond them, establishing objectives, programs,
and timetables through 1972. Whatever happened in the short run, we had to prove ourselves in the marketplace in the long run.”
Chapin's immediate problems were five: