The Turnaround Kid

Miller spent his career as a restructuring executive and wrote a memoir covering the assignments he is known for: the Chrysler rescue under Lee Iacocca, where he negotiated with the hundreds of banks holding the company's debt; Bethlehem Steel, where he oversaw the bankruptcy and the sale of assets to Wilbur Ross's ISG; Federal-Mogul; and Delphi, the auto parts business spun off from General Motors, which he took into Chapter 11 in 2005.

The recurring analytical content concerns legacy costs. Miller argues that the American manufacturers and their suppliers made pension and retiree healthcare commitments in periods when the ratio of workers to retirees made them appear affordable, and that when the ratio inverted the obligations became unpayable. At Bethlehem the company was supporting many times more retirees than employees. At Delphi the labour cost per hour under inherited General Motors agreements was multiples of what competitors paid. He argues that bankruptcy became the only mechanism by which these commitments could be reset, since neither party would agree to reduce them voluntarily, and he is direct that this transfers the loss to retirees and to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

The practical content covers what he does on arrival: establish the cash position immediately, determine which businesses have a future, communicate the same message to every stakeholder, and move quickly because credibility decays.

Miller is candid about being the person who delivers these outcomes and about the personal cost, including his wife's illness during the Delphi period. He is less reflective about whether the alternatives he rejected were viable, and the Delphi outcome in particular is contested by the unions and salaried retirees who lost benefits. The book is an executive's account and readers should treat the framing accordingly.