The Turnaround Kid: What I Learned Rescuing America's Most Troubled Companies

Written by Steve Miller

Narrated by Dick Hill

"Steve Miller has a knack for taking over companies just before they are about to smash into a wall," the Wall Street Journal observed. "In fact, it is his specialty." For thirty years-beginning with the legendary Chrysler bailout, which he negotiated as a key member of Lee Iacocca's team, to the revival of the U.S. steel industry-Miller has done the messy, unpleasant work of salvaging America's lost companies.

Though he has brought many companies back to life, Miller is deeply aware of the high price individual workers and many communities must pay to restore the health of American industry. That's why the Wall Street Journal said, "He has become Mr. Fix-It for American industry, stepping in to help large, once-dominant businesses confront and manage ugly realities."

The ugly reality is that there is a battle going on in the heart of industrial America, or what is left of it. Centered in the auto industry but radiating out to every manufacturing corporation, management and labor are at loggerheads over wages and the cost of employee benefits. At the bankrupt Delphi Corporation, Miller is cutting costs and closing plants, but he's doing the job for $1. If anyone knows what it will take for American manufacturing to return to profitability, it's Miller.

In this frank memoir, Miller reveals a rarely seen side of American management. Known for his wry sense of humor, Miller talks about what it takes to be an executive. He shares the credit for his success with his "mentor and occasional tormentor," Margaret Kyger Miller, who was his wife and ally for forty years. Her death opens the book and reminds the reader that this will be a blunt and unsparing look at Miller's own education as an American executive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Apr 29, 2008
• ISBN: 9781400176120

Steve Miller

Robert S. Miller, better known as Steve, served as chairman and CEO of Delphi Corporation. In addition, he serves on the boards of Symantec and United Airlines. He resides near Detroit, Michigan, with his wife, Jill.

Reviews for The Turnaround Kid

[msjoanna · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Business books, and especially war-story type memoirs, can often be pedantic without actually providing much substance. Miller beautifully avoids this pitfall and writes an excellent book that provides a look both at Miller personally and at the business situations he handled in his varied and interesting career. I would highly recommend this book to anyone at all interested in the problems facing modern business, particularly old-line businesses like the auto makers and steel industrial giants that Miller assisted. The first chapter is also a quite lovely tribute to Miller's wife of nearly forty years who died of brain cancer in 2006.Overall, the book occasionally bogged down into too much description of the names and personalities of the individuals with whom Miller worked, but was mostly highly readable and worthwhile. Miller gives a clear picture of the job of a top consultant faced with companies in crisis and was willing to give a more clear and honest account of the problems and difficult compromises he was forced to make to try to bring these companies back from the brink of failure. The book is a valuable addition to the universe both of business books and memoirs.In the final chapter Miller gives his perspective on the grand problems of pension plan liabilities and health care costs. His suggestions are sweeping and do not actually provide action plans so much as identify known problems. Nonetheless, because the book was so well-written and thoughtful, Miller seemed to earn the right to comment on these larger problems facing companies.