This is not a fiction. This is a real story that is consolidated from
a number of media reports and an academic paper.
In the American auto industry, the breakup of Ford and
Firestone has been perhaps one of the most talked about topics.
Their friendship goes back to 1906 when Henry Ford placed
a large order of pneumatic tires to Harvey Firestone. Henry Ford is the founder
of Ford Motor. Harvey Firestone is the founder of Firestone.
The marriage of the automaker and the tire maker survived the
next century. It suddenly ended in 2000 when the Ford Explorer sports utility vehicles
toppled on American highways. The cause of the accidents was burst tires. The
Explorer had Firestone tires.
Bridgestone/Firestone CEO Masatoshi Ono said, “I have come
to apologize to the families who have lost their loved ones in the terrible
rollover accidents,” in American congress.
The Ono successor, John Lampe, also apologized and said,
“Firestone tires are completely safe.” Ford CEO Jacques Nasser disagreed and said
the accident was “a tire issue.”
The dispute ended in 2005 as Bridgestone paid $240 million
to Ford Motor to settle the case.
Discussion
Conventional
ideas are that apologies are to be avoided if you do not want to be prosecuted.
Bridgestone/Firestone CEOs, Ono and Lampe, have defied this convention.
If I did not
study this case I would have said, “Don’t apologize, unless it is absolutely
necessary,” to my students, but now I am not sure if I would say the same.
There is
nothing wrong with expressing sorrow before the family members of victims who
died in traffic accidents. In this sense, both Ono and Lampe did the right
thing.
Yet, I still
have a question. Who is the real survivor of the dispute? Any ideas?
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