Would it really have been that hard to embed the Wikipedia link in the article? Sure I can look this some up, but someone is trying to explain it to me and its just one stupid link.

I guess it depends on what you mean by a "car guy". Running Ford is a very complex job - you have to make huge macro decisions years in advance of the end effect. For example, you have to decide all the details of all the cars you are producing today probably eighteen months or two years in advance. How many of each model to produce, design decisions for each car, etc. A "car guy" has a marginally better chance of creating an organization that will design a car that will be a "good car". The problem is that the CEO really has to delegate almost all of those decisions to the mid-level executives in the design and production groups. The CEO can work with other senior execs and the board of directors to say "next year, we will make a good profit if we produce X of model A, Y of model B and Z of model C and sell them at appropriate profit levels." Its up to others in the company to make sure that the cars are produced, that the dessigns are appealing and so on. For what Cringley is talking about the auto industry is really a terrible example. The macro factors are so huge compared to most smaller tech companies. Care are a better comparison for either large tech companies like IBM or for tech work in "non-tech" industries.