Lee Iacocca -- largely credited for saving Chrysler from financial ruin in the early 1980s -- received a hero's welcome at an employee rally Thursday at Chrysler Technical Center. Current chairman and CEO Bob Nardelli invited Iacocca, 83, to review Chrysler's operations and to inspire employees who are battling again to resurrect the automaker amid tanking vehicle sales and rising gas prices. Chrysler performs best in a crisis, according to Iacocca, who expressed his faith in management's ability to turn the company around. Iacocca dominated the conversation, taking about a half-hour to answer Nardelli's inquiry about his experiences when …

Ritz-Carlton has elevated the luxury experience to a true art form, according to Joseph A. Michelli in "The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company." He says any business can achieve the same level of success by adhering to the following principles: 1. Define and Refine; 2. Empower through Trust; 3. It's Not about You; 4. Deliver Wow! 5. Leave a Lasting Footprint. The book is primarily intended to help managers, owners, and leaders understand the driving principles, processes, and practices that have generated unusual staff loyalty, world-class …

For the first time, Wal-Mart is publicly revealing details about its newest store concept -- the four Marketside outlets it is opening in the Phoenix area in the fall. On a new Web site for the stores, Wal-Mart makes it clear that it is looking to one-up the British retailer Tesco by emphasizing service. The site lists openings for "meal specialists" to work across all operational areas of the store including cashier, food preparer, merchandising and store presentation. The battle royale between the world's No. 1 and No. 3 retailers is heating up. The four Wal-Mart stores to open in …

A.G. Lafley, chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble, is concerned by the "woe is me and ain't it awful" rhetoric adopted by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during their fierce battle for the Democrat nomination and is urging Obama and Republican John McCain to dial back on the negativism during the general campaign. "You know we are in a business where psychology matters -- even in the staples business -- and in the economy psychology matters," he says, expressing the fear that "we will talk ourselves into a worse recession." Lafley, who sells more than $40 billion …

In readying an argument that InBev's NV's unsolicited $46.35 billion offer to acquire it is inadequate, Anheuser-Busch is preparing its own strategic plan for the company that includes options such as selling its theme-park business, which could fetch $3 billion, people familiar with the situation say. Anheuser also may explore selling its packaging business, which could fetch around $1.5 billion. Anheuser approached its Mexican partner, Grupo Modelo SA, about cutting a deal to fend off InBev. But those talks appear not to have made any progress. Such a transaction would likely entail Anheuser acquiring all of Modelo, of which …

As part of a strategy to grab market share from rivals that has worked successfully for its corporate parent (Kroger) in other regions, Ralphs Grocery Wednesday unveiled a lower-price policy that it said was a nod to beleaguered consumers struggling to pay rising food and gasoline prices. Ralphs also will retool its loyalty card program so that shoppers gain points based on purchases and collect cash rebates. The grocer has also changed its double-coupon program, capping the savings a shopper can garner. In moving to a lower-price strategy, Ralphs is trying to deal with intensifying competition from new …

MasterCard on Wednesday agreed to pay $1.8 billion to American Express to settle claims related to a 2004 antitrust lawsuit. Visa agreed to pay more than $2.1 billion to AmEx seven months ago to put similar claims behind it as it raced ahead with plans for an initial public offering in March. The Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that Visa and MasterCard violated antitrust rules by barring their member banks from offering credit cards that could be used on rival payment networks. American Express and Discover Financial filed suit, seeking billions of dollars in damages based on the revenue …