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Take Note: The Ford Pinto Case with Denny Gioia

Denny Gioia, Kline Professor of Business and Chair of Business Management in Penn State's Smeal College of Business.
Penn State Smeal College of Business

gioia_bonus_interview.mp3
BONUS INTERVIEW: Denny Gioia talks about the controversial cost-benefit analysis used at the time, the GM ignition switch case, why he left Ford Motor Company in 1975, and about his thoughts on the Sandusky scandal.

He’s been called Mr. Pinto.  Denny Gioia was the Ford Motor Company’s Recall Coordinator in the early 1970s when a field report about one of the company’s top-selling cars landed on his desk.  It was one of more than a hundred case files. At issue was whether the Ford Pinto’s fuel tank posed a serious fire hazard if struck from behind. The case would result in a series of devastating lawsuits against Ford, a recall of 1.5 million vehicles and charges of reckless homicide. It would also become a case study in business ethics classes and the poster child for corporate greed.   How did it happen and what did we learn from the Ford Pinto case?  WPSU's Patty Satalia talks with Denny Gioia, now the Kline Professor of Management and the Chair of the Department of Management and Organization in Penn State’s Smeal College of Business. 

Patty Satalia was a senior producer/host for WPSU-TV and FM from 1987 to 2017. Prior to joining Penn State Public Broadcasting, she worked in commercial television in Pittsburgh, first as a film editor and fill-in capsule news anchor for WPGH-TV, and later, for WPTT-TV as public affairs director and co-host of the talk-show, People, Places and Things.
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