Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
Preston Tucker is role model entrepreneur, he tried to revolutionize the car industry. In fact, he stated in the movie that among of the people he admired one of them was Henry Ford. Tucker was a car lover and passionate about the automobile industry. He even designed a car made for the battlefield to help the US military; however, it was faster than what it was expected to be, thus, his design wasn’t very prosperous. Later, he had another idea, he wanted to create an automobile different to the already existing options in the market at that time. He designed a car with extremely futuristic features, like rear-mounted engine, seatbelts, a pop-out windshields, disc brakes, and even movable headlights that turned with the wheels, but at the end, only a centered headlight was implemented in the car. He put together a great team, and even, he was able to buy one of the biggest plants to manufacture his cars in the US. However, Tucker didn’t know that the market competitors would give him an unpleasant surprise. The Big Three through bureaucracy boycotted Tucker’s new business by making up lies and exposing Tucker’s private information. This forced Tucker to abandon his dream, only being able to build 50 automobiles.
Tucker’s story is interesting because it shows that having a good and innovative idea does not necessarily translate to be successful. One scene that I found so interesting, is when Tucker was about to show his new innovative car to the public, he had most of it working as it should be but still the car had some minor deficiencies. Still, he was able to introduce his new creation to the consumers. Although, he was successful in presenting it, he was only able to produce 50. This made me think of the many factors that come into play when starting a business. In the movie, other competitors didn’t want Tucker to succeed, because they knew how his new car was going to change the market and affect their businesses negatively. Nevertheless, I was glad that he was declared not guilty at the end, and even I was amazed that he was already working in another idea.
From an entrepreneurship and society perspective, Trucker was creating a higher opportunity cost for Americans. He was building new cars with innovative and safer features compared to the options available in the market at that time. As a good entrepreneur, he was trying to do good to society by providing more optionality in the automobile industry. Although it wasn’t easy for him, because he had to convince investors, he had to convince consumers, he had to find a place to produce all these cars, but he went on and never halted. However, it is sad to see what the reality of the market was at that time and perhaps until this day. The Big Three were humongous automobile companies, and they did everything they could to restrain Tucker from building cars. It is sad because their first priority was their companies and their businesses and no consumers. Their cars did not have any safety feature as the ones that Tucker was proposing in his car model. They knew that if a safety standard was set by Tucker, they would be forced to implement it to their cars produced. So, this meant two things for the Big Three, either loosing money because people would prefer to buy Tucker’s cars because of safety, or they would have to had implemented these safety features to their cars which also was going to cost them money. In the movie, Bennington states when they’re in the trial that “A well-run corporation doesn’t waste money to research innovations, unless, of course, keeping up with competition” [1:28:05, 1:28:18], which demonstrated the importance of research for innovation at that time. Lastly, Tucker said at the end of the trial “What’s the difference (of having) fifty or fifty million cars. That’s only machinery, it’s the idea that counts and the dream.” [1:43:50, 1:44:03]. He proved that at the end it wasn’t about the money, it was about to achieve his dream. And I believe that is one of the most powerful lines in the movie. Having an idea and executing it is core to be an entrepreneur, the monetary part should not refrain us from moving forward.