Take Note: The Ford Pinto Case with Denny Gioia

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.