Former vice chairman of the Chrysler Corporation, Bob Lutz
(11 of 11)
DARLA MOORE: I don't know who should reign, but they were just doing normal marketing jobs. I mean, from the sounds of this panel, we're a big image-creating, advertising, juggernaut here.
NORMAN PEARLSTINE: They got access to capital.
DARLA MOORE: They had access to capital, and what they didn't they stole it.
WALTER ISAACSON: And they could allocate it.
DARLA MOORE: And they could allocate it. So, I say they did a normal marketing job.
RAY BRADY: They created a major industry that's alive today — alive and thriving.
WALTER ISAACSON: Well, they—
GERALDINE LAYBOURNE: Did they have any Harvard MBAs?
DARLA MOORE: No. [crosstalk]
NORMAN PEARLSTINE: They had one but he's shot.
ROBERT A. LUTZ: Let's ask— Let's ask how these empires of crime got their start. They got their start largely through prohibition.
DARLA MOORE: Right.
ROBERT A. LUTZ: Which was a misguided attempt to deprive the public of something it likes. And they all grew big by either illegally producing or illegally importing. And we'll recreate those empires again the day we outlaw in this country, which is — I think — very much on a lot of people's agendas.
WALTER ISAACSON: Now, let's move on to the future for a moment.
You've moved, Geraldine, from television and now you're mainly operating on the web at the moment, is that right?
GERALDINE LAYBOURNE: We'll have a television.
WALTER ISAACSON: Yeah, but you're starting off on the web or whatever.
GERALDINE LAYBOURNE: I—
WALTER ISAACSON: New entrepreneurs are coming out of new media, do you think? Or is that where we should look 'em?
Or what's the next wave of entrepreneurs.
GERALDINE LAYBOURNE: I think there'll be a lot of entrepreneurs in the new media world. But I think the future for my gender is really rosy. And, as we've sat here on this panel and not one woman has been mentioned, and I think our century is about to come.
We didn't really join the work force until 20 years ago. And women are particularly well suited to being entrepreneurial and flexible, and they will do very well in a fast-changing information based economy because they manage differently.
And I think, you know, I hope that the panel up here—
WALTER ISAACSON: Next century.
GERALDINE LAYBOURNE: —100 years from now has a more diverse list.
WALTER ISAACSON: Would— is there any woman you think of in this century? I mean, Estee Lauder?
GERALDINE LAYBOURNE: It's really tough because I don't think they've really had the kind of profound impact.
WALTER ISAACSON: Present company excluded.
DARLA MOORE: Margaret Thatcher is the closest I can think of—
NORMAN PEARLSTINE: But she's—
WALTER ISAACSON: She's already been on our list.
NORMAN PEARLSTINE: She's already been on ... on — what is it? — the leaders and revolutionaries.
DARLA MOORE: Right.
WALTER ISAACSON: So, the future will be more women as the heads of industry.
GERALDINE LAYBOURNE: I think you'll see more women, more diversity.
WALTER ISAACSON: What else? What other— [crosstalk]
NORMAN PEARLSTINE: I think there are a couple of things. One, I would share your view that there will be more women, and I think the 20th century is very much a century where big business was the province of white American men.
It is worth mentioning in looking to this century and even going forward, I think, that in addition to these large enterprises that we celebrate through the builders and titans the whole entrepreneurial class and the strength of small business has really been one of the things that's sustained our economy over the last couple decades.
And that's a place where women have made extraordinary strides, but which we don't often get a chance to publicize.
I think also that we need to talk about organized labor as certainly a phenomenon of the 20th century, and at least raise the question of whether it is vestigial as we go forward or whether we might see a real resurgence of labor, particularly as we see the kinds of ravages that come with pure market economies.
And that would be a place that I would think you might want to go.
WALTER ISAACSON: Well, let me wrap it up by giving my own personal opinion, which I think is that an entrepreneurial work force, decentralized with more opportunities labor is gonna become less relevant. Government is gonna become almost totally irrelevant except when it's needed to bail out every now and then.
And it's all gonna be guided by entrepreneurs and the allocation of capital. And it's gonna be a very decentralized system. And that's gonna be the future of our capitalist system.
And it's why I think America's well positioned to be part of the next century the way it has been dominant in this century.
NORMAN PEARLSTINE: Will it have builders and titans? This decentralized system?
WALTER ISAACSON: It'll have all builders and titans.
GERALDINE LAYBOURNE: Titaness.
WALTER ISAACSON: Thank you all very much for coming, and thank you very much for being part of this program. We look forward to trying to make a list out of it.
Good evening.
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