Readers of a certain age will recognize the latter part of this headline as the “gag” title above a Boston Globe editorial about President Carter—that somehow made it into print. I evoke it here because ex-ChryCo CEO Bob Nardelli’s goodbye letter to his troops involves a different sort of gag response. While you’re invited to read the full text after the jump, here’s the short version: I didn’t fuck up. I mean, he. Nardelli. Bob the Un-Builder. The Home Depot despot. A man who drove not one but two large corporations into the dirt.
Nardelli wants the ChryCo workers whose fate he controlled to know that it was fate what did them in. In other words, everything was going great! Right until it wasn’t. “Even with our early and aggressive restructuring efforts, we could not offset the negative impact of the financial crisis and the severe economic recession. However, because of those efforts, we gained credibility and the support of the U.S. Treasury, which provided funds to assist us through this transitional period.” So don’t blame me AND you can thank me later. Nice.
Dear Employees,
Congratulations!
I am pleased to report that we have closed the alliance agreement between Chrysler Group LLC and Fiat S.p.A. and have emerged from bankruptcy in record time. Chrysler Group now is a leaner, healthier and more robust company ready to compete in the challenging economy as an important player in the global automotive industry. As I announced on April 30, the completion of this alliance agreement is an appropriate time for me to step aside and return to Cerberus Capital Management. But in leaving, I want to share some parting thoughts with you and express my everlasting appreciation for the work you have done, the sacrifices you have made and the support you have shown me during my time as Chairman and CEO of Chrysler LLC.
This is my farewell message to you.
When I joined Chrysler 20 months ago, I was immediately impressed by the deep intellect of Chrysler people, by your dedication and loyalty to the company and by your passion for innovation, design and great products. All of my experiences since then have reinforced those initial impressions.
What I have learned along the way is that Chrysler people also have the resolute heart of a scrappy underdog. This is a company that has been knocked down many times, but never knocked out. The global economic downturn and the credit crisis have severely tested Chrysler’s ability to survive. But our employees, retirees, the UAW, CAW, dealers, suppliers, lenders, our owners Cerberus and Daimler, and other stakeholders have rallied together and made the sacrifices necessary to restructure and reposition Chrysler and give it a new lease on life and the opportunity for long-term success. No one should ever doubt the tenacity of the Chrysler spirit and its rich legacy.
During the darkest hour of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine wrote of the “sunshine patriot” who disappears when the going gets tough. I have found there are no sunshine patriots at Chrysler-just men and women who stand tall and persevere, who never lose hope or faith despite adversity and the negativism from this great industry’s detractors. You are men and women who believe in the company, in each other and in a better future.
During my 38 years in business, I’ve never faced a tougher challenge. Even with our early and aggressive restructuring efforts, we could not offset the negative impact of the financial crisis and the severe economic recession. However, because of those efforts, we gained credibility and the support of the U.S. Treasury, which provided funds to assist us through this transitional period. The global automotive industry is fiercely competitive, and international economic forces have left even the largest automakers awash in red ink. At Chrysler, we have had to take significant restructuring actions to adjust to the new market realities. From August of 2007 through May 2008, we saw the impact of the declining SAAR on our current market share result in the loss of 610,000 units of production, or about $14 billion in revenue.
At the same time, we continued to invest in the restructuring of the company, including $7 billion in 2008 alone. We took important steps to improve quality, which resulted in the lowest warranty cost in the company’s history and the lowest recall rate in the industry in 2008. These efforts will pay off even more in the years to come. We strengthened our commitment to a customer-focused culture. We maintained our commitment to a strong product pipeline, with 24 new vehicles planned during a period of 48 months. For 2009, 73 percent of our product lineup offers greater fuel economy than last year’s models and, going forward, our robust electric-vehicle strategy will help meet national concerns about energy security and climate change.
The newly signed alliance with Fiat is a direct result of our strategy to pursue partnerships to drive growth. Chrysler and Fiat will be an excellent fit in terms of product, geographical strengths and culture. Using Fiat’s distribution system, Chrysler will be able to substantially increase the global reach for the Chrysler, Dodge and iconic Jeep® brands in markets outside of North America. Fiat will bring vitally important small platforms and advanced powertrain technology, broadening our portfolio of offerings and providing customers with exciting fuel-efficient products that they will want to buy. This alliance also will significantly enhance our ability to compete and comply with the new CAFE standards.
I want to express my deep gratitude to my staff at Chrysler as well as to our owners at Cerberus and Daimler, who provided steady and unstinting support throughout our efforts to revitalize the company and enable it to survive. I’d also like to thank President Obama’s administration, the U.S. Treasury Department, the President’s Automotive Task Force, the Canadian government and the province of Ontario, as well as our partners at the UAW and the CAW, for their continuing support in helping us complete this alliance. Their efforts will help to protect the livelihoods of many thousands of people in the Chrysler work force and the many others who depend upon those workers.
With the appointment of a new board of directors and the selection of Bob Kidder as Chairman and Sergio Marchionne as CEO, I am confident that Chrysler will continue to build on its proud 85-year heritage and remain an integral part of American life for many years to come. The road ahead will always have hurdles, but I strongly believe that Chrysler will meet every challenge and will build a bright future as part of a vibrant new company.
It has been my privilege to share in the rich Chrysler legacy and to serve as your Chairman and CEO. I’ve never been involved with a more talented, passionate and committed group of men and women. The dedication you have shown to your company and to each another has been truly remarkable.
I also want to express my deep appreciation to the entire Detroit-area community for welcoming and accepting me during my time with Chrysler. In my many years in business, I have worked in 14 different cities. Detroit and the auto industry have done so much to shape our country’s history, and I feel tremendously proud to have been a part of this dynamic community and a company so committed to its revitalization.
I thank you from my heart, and I hope that the coming years bring good fortune and prosperity to each of you, your families and to everyone associated with the great Chrysler team.
Sincerely,
Bob
Nardeli brings a whole new definition to the words “shame” and “delusion”.
Why is there about eight inches of shirt cuff sticking out from the end of his jacket sleeve? You’d think on his salary he could afford clothes that fit.
I tuned out when he started citing the American Revolution — after all, that was Chevy’s line :)
Any thoughts on what company he’ll wreck next? If they put an AT&T stooge in charge of GM then Nardelli shouldn’t have any trouble finding work.
Bringing in top management at a manufacturing company that are inexperienced in manufacturing is a mistake. But it continues to be done:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/10/whitacre-new-gm-chairman-_n_213611.html
The new GM chairman claims he doesn’t know anything about cars. I believe him. He ran AT&T.
Looks like another Nardelli disaster in the making.
Is it fair to blame Nardelli for what happened to Chrysler after Daimler basically left it for dead? I’m not defending the man, I’m just curious.
The new GM chairman claims he doesn’t know anything about cars. I believe him. He ran AT&T.
As long as he is observant enough to sit in a G3 or an Aveo and go – “God, this thing is a piece of sh*t.” He’ll be well on his way to glory.
So long, Bob. Don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya.
Asshole. What a complete and bona fide asshole. The subtitle to this POS letter should be “Please don’t sue me after I’m gone!”
How due guys like Nardelli get put in positions where their colossal failures end up costing the livelihood of tens of thousands of hard-working people.
Bob, if you’d remained as a greeter at Home Depot, at least when you f#cked that up, the only people you would have hurt was your own family.
What a truly abhorent and despicable wretch of a human being. But hey, don’t worry about him, I am sure he’s got millions banked to live off the rest of his sorry life…..
Hmph, I was only a little kid during the Carter era. About all I remember is the Iran hostage crisis. Which I vaguely remember reading lead to some botched rescue attempt. Maybe you drew more parallels than you think Robert.
(NOTE: I am not making light of the servicemen who died in that attempt, so please no one freak out on me.)
If you consider how many engineers his team ran off from Cerberus Chrysler, his kind words to the staff is very touching.
FIAT gets 20 % of the shell that is left after the Daimler and Cerberus years .
From the way things went, Nardelli main accomplishment was to keep costs in check until a buyer arrived. That’s done, arrivederci !
The newly signed alliance with Fiat is a direct result of our strategy to pursue partnerships to drive growth.
Just like the newly broken alliance with Daimler?
There are no sunshine patriots are Chrysler …. and if there were, they were probably flushed by the layoffs.
[Bob Nardelli, quoting Thomas Paine? I’ve seen everything.]
The new GM chairman claims he doesn’t know anything about cars. I believe him. He ran AT&T.
He doesn’t even have to have ridden in a car to beat the hell out of Wagoner. Wagoner couldn’t figure out how to break even with Saturn in all his time as heading GM NA and CEO. He couldn’t fix it, yet he didn’t have the brains/guts to kill it. And then there’s Hummer, the Fiat deal, and worst of all, his continuous arrogance and utter confidence that he and his team of clowns were “the best management team in the business” to use his own words. This new guy looks like the second coming to me.
In all the people he thanked, Nardelli somehow forgot the suppliers who were royally screwed over by his buddy Campi. Maybe he thinks they should be thanking him for that experience.
As he waves from his private jet wearing a very golden parachute.
No wonder Home Depot gave him over 200 million dollars to GTFO.
His biggest failure was not finding a stupid enough buyer for Mopar fast enough. The 3 headed dog wanted no part of making cars, they make money by strip and flip.
I hope he retires rather than F up another company.
I doubt he wrote this. Probably an invention of the PR department.
keep costs in check until a buyer arrived
Buyer? Didn’t they GIVE Chrysler to Fiat? For free? I think the term “buyer” assumes there was money exchanged.
gslippy said:
Just like the newly broken alliance with Daimler?
Daimler was hardly an alliance – it was just a different kind of “strip & flip”. Daimler was looking for a piggy bank to raid and they got it.
He is ranked by Business Week as the 17th worse CEO of all time. He is one for the ages.
He accomplished absolutely nothing at Chrysler. He could have sat at his desk and played Tetris all day and it would have made no difference.
Typical deluded American corprocrat executive.
Wheeljack :
“Daimler was hardly an alliance – it was just a different kind of “strip & flip”. Daimler was looking for a piggy bank to raid and they got it.”
You have to be kidding! Chrysler cost Daimler, at last count, $38BB! More like an attempted strip and a blow up in your face deal.
kkt :
June 10th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Why is there about eight inches of shirt cuff sticking out from the end of his jacket sleeve? You’d think on his salary he could afford clothes that fit.
kkt, that’s how you wear a suit. Your shirt cuff should be a bit longer than your jacket sleeve when you’re standing up and your arms are down. Obviously if you raise your arms, your jacket will slide up more than the shirt sleeve, and thus, you have what you see there.
@ akear
He is ranked by Business Week as the 17th worse CEO of all time.
17th?!?!? Good God, who are the others…..
The others include Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, Jay Gould, and the psycho Al Dunlop, who actually liked to fire people. At least Dunlop was honest in his pleasure in creating misery. Nardelli is the cowardly type that hides behind his desk and avoids interaction with employees.
The complete list is here.
http://www.portfolio.com/executives/2009/04/22/20-Worst-CEOs?page=1
akear, that’s one hell of a list. Thanks for posting it. As far as Rick Wagner bad-mouthing Roger Smith, well pot meet kettle.
One has to wonder what Cerberus was thinking when they hired this guy.
Yet another drama for a company that’s suffered with more than its share: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-6882-Classic-Autos-Examiner~y2009m4d30-Chrylser-files-Chapter-11-Bankruptcya-chance-for-survival-with-Fiat
Nardelli is yet another example of how in the corporate world talent and real leadership rarely rises to the top. In most cases it’s just the most aggressive, best-connected mediocre egotistical jerks, uninhibited by any sense of ethics or self-awareness.