Sir Michael Edwardes, the South African-born industrialist who has died aged 88, was a veteran of corporate confrontation; his chairmanship of the British Leyland group was one of the definitive battles against trade union dominance in British industry.
Edwardes was appointed chairman of the monolithic partly nationalised car company – which encompassed Austin, Morris, Rover, Jaguar and Triumph – in November 1977, the year in which it had lost production of 250,000 cars through industrial disputes.
It faced immediate financial crisis: unless additional state funds were injected, no cash remained to pay the workforce’s wages beyond the year-end.
Edwardes arrived with a reputation for abrasiveness gained as the head of the Chloride battery company, which had multiplied its profits over the previous five years. He had also been a member of the National Enterprise Board (through which troublesome state-owned industries like BL were then supervised) and was well aware of the challenge facing him.
His first report to the NEB, six weeks into the job, was later summarised in his memoirs: “An unattainable corporate plan for 1978 and beyond; an inadequate product range; serious design defects even in new models, compounded by lack of quality and poor reliability.
“Heavy losses …, with an uncompetitive … cost base; disputes … running at appalling levels; overmanning of huge proportions … inadequate management structure … Factories out of control and some virtually controlled by militant shop stewards; … severe doubts about the viability of the model planned for the new small-car programme; severe excess capacity in the light of the inadequacy of the models being produced; no agreed product strategy …”
The list went on and on.
Source and more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/09/17/sir-michael-edwardes-pugnacious-chairman-british-leyland-won/
