This is a great topic.
First to answer the question: If you have a real interest in IH history and what really happened, Barbara Marsh's book "A Corporate Tragedy" is a must read. Remember though, that it was written/published in 1984/85 when the whole thing came to an end for IH, so the info was gleaned at the time, and not hindsight of 25 years later. As other posters have noted IH was not the only to disappear as it was known then. They all disappeared as they were known for decades (eg Case, MF, Allis, etc) except for JD.
Some points for you:
- The downfall of IH started right after WWII. They had their hands in too many things even then, and management of the day decided they wanted to be the big boys in construction and took on Cat. They simply didn't have the dollars to fund so many undertakings, let alone take on Cat after WWII. That was a failure and huge loss of dollars that could have better been spent on the ag line.
- IH was into appliances into the 1950's (deep freezes), and finally smartened up and got out of the business as the big stores grew bigger - eg. Sears at the time. IH sold their line to Whirlpool as I recall. Again, they were in it too long and could have used R&D funds much better elsewhere.
- The 560 tractor fiasco of 1958/59 is when IH ag fell behind JD, and was the tipping point. It was a screw up that should never have been allowed to happen, but it did. IH lost many loyal customers to this mess.
- Don't forget that IH owned it's own steel plant, and even 2 great lakes freighters to move ore to it's steel mill. Marsh deals with the steel mill quite extensively in her book and the very serious drain this had on IH, and the terrible loss in trying to shed it in the 1970's which cost them a bundle. This is one aspect of IH that many don't know, forget, or under estimate. Marsh does a great job in explaining the real hit IH took in having it's own steel mill, and how very expensive steel mills became to update.
- Hiring an outside CEO was very silly and noted by other posters. He made some bad calls, but so did the union. Yes there is blame for both sides. However, IH was in such bad shape because of decade-after-decade of bad or late business decisions, that it dug a very deep hole for itself, even before the strike.
- Don't forget that there were a lot of "experts" out there who did not see the 1980-82 recession coming, AND ultra-high interest rates, AND the collapse of the farm economy - the perfect storm. IH had a few of these "experts" and they sincerely believed they could recover from the strike as the economy would continue to grow. They were terribly wrong.......
- Tenneco owned Case, but Case was shadow of it's former self by 1984. By the time of the merger, it was simply into tractors and some tillage (made by Sunflower, not even Case). They were a small player compared to about 1970, when they at least were still a full line ag company. Some still think that IH went bankrupt. It almost did, but made the sale of the ag Division to Tenneco who merged it with Case.
- As for quality, every company had good and bad ones. The 560 was a dog that really hurt IH, until the recall was completed, but by then the damage had been done. I am NOT a JD fan, but one of the best tractors ever built was the 4440.
- I agree with the poster as it applies to AC and Oliver. They had great technologies for their day. The Oliver over/under hydraul-shift was the best powershift technology in it's day in my opinion (and was in production well into the 1980's) and greatly outdid MF, JD, IH, and especially Case! However the IH TA gets maligned a bit more than it should. It was good for it's day, but IH didn't have the money until the 88 series to move away from the TA. The TA should have been dumped by about 1970, but with no money to go to a powershift they didn't. It wasn't until 1981 with the 88 series and the new transmission - they wasted another 10 years and lost customers along the way.
- To this day, JD has the best management - and I am NOT a JD fan at all, and will have nothing green in my yard. However, you have to give credit where credit is due, and JD management is the best. They are the only ones to have survived the 1980's, but that's because after World War II they kept a steady hand and made very good decisions - even to this day. They have a great culture, and their marketing people are the best as well. They truly get marketing and you see JD stuff everywhere. To this day CaseIH is so far behind, as they see marketing items as part of the parts department, not for what it is and can be used for. JD sees it very differently and they are right.
- IH always had the best all around engine for it's day. Power, torque, and fuel efficiency, especially the 400 series. But that's where they dumped the money: Not operator comfort (incl a powershift). JD "got it" very early on, in that they saw driver comfort as key. They were right and were years ahead of their time with operator comfort. It's no coincidence that when IH shed the ag line, they kept the trucks (very profitable) and the engines. Hence we have Navistar today.
Again, great topic!!
