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There are plenty of reasons to believe that Chrysler will not survive, let alone thrive the way the firm’s five-year plan foresees, but one of them does not appear to be Sergio Marchionne’s leadership. Though there’s doubtless a good deal of hubris in his plan, Marchionne’s depth of knowledge, personal experience and legendary workaholism seem to indicate that, if nothing else, Chrysler’s leadership is lightyears away from the Bob Nardelli years. Considering he oversaw a turnaround of Fiat that was only slightly less improbable than his current turnaround mission, he’s about as qualified to take on the mess in Auburn Hills as anyone else. Here are his closing remarks from the seven-hour product and business plan event.
[powerpress]
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You drank the Kool-Aid while you were up there, didn’t you?!?
Just Kidding…
It’s nice to see some form of ambition coming from the American(ish?) auto industry. I’m very curious to see what will come of all this. And I’m glad that you all are covering this and not another SEMA show! This is very interesting stuff.
You gotta like a guy who confronts skepticism head on. He doesn’t fall back on bs, but instead lays out the history of his success at turning around Fiat. Sergio is an answer to the title of Iaccoca’s recent book: “Where Have All The Leaders Gone?”
Any chance he can get GM to cough up $2 billion again?
His Dodge lifestyle is definitely “Thrill Seeker”.
Haven’t had a chance to listen to the remarks yet. But this post did catch my eye, and remind me of one thing.
I’ve worked in Silicon Valley for a couple of decades now. Over that time, the thing that has surprised me the most is failure where I thought success was sure. A close second in surprise is success where I thought failure was sure.
In my own mind, I’d pretty well written off Chrysler. This post makes me wonder. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.
This guy kicks ass and takes names.
Iaccoca: Where Have All The Leaders Gone?
As kids, they must have been in the back seats of rear-ended Pintos.
Here is why Chrysler won’t survive. I own the 2006 Dodge Charger and only have 24,000 miles. In August of 2009 the car literally started to fall apart, my air conditioner vents fell off, my control panel for my driver side locks and windows fell down in the door panel, I had a diagnostic test completed in which revealed I needed a new FCM, and WCM, now on November 2, 2009 my car has become stuck in park. I have taken my car to another dealership and now they tell me it’s not my FCM it is the radiator fans are both out. Remind you only have 24,000 miles and guess what it is no longer under warranty. It is sad the only option your company could give me is to purchase and extended warranty for $1,400.00 in which you will only cover 50% due to the problems occurring out of warranty. Real nice way to take care of your customer! The icing on the cake my husband who has purchased 4 of your trucks in the past 8 years now has the 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel 4X4, and has had his air conditioner stop working 5 times in two years. They have changed 2 compressors, the vent door was replaced and which now has to be replaced again, the dryer has been replaced, and of course we need another new compressor. Oh by the way his warranty has just expired also. I will never purchase another Dodge or Chrysler product ever again and I will be sure to pass this along to every single person who considers to purchase your product.
Very dissatisfied Customers!!!
Sergio needs a speech coach. English is his first language, yes? Or is it accounting? Anyway, there’s a definite droning quality to this speech that sucks the air right out of my headphones.
“I’m not here to judge the past” – How long do we have to hear “today is Day One” from Chrysler’s suits before we scream shut up and dance? The only thing worse than yet another turnaround pledge is the MSM’s willingness to give Auburn Hills endless mulligans. Especially as it’s now on our dime.
“Our common humanity matters more than our interesting differences.” And then “The brands that Chrysler holds . . . They are and always have their roots in America. And that will never change.” – So ChryCo will triumph by being closerthanthis with Fiat, but the most important thing for the Chrysler brand is to be American. Go figure.
Quoting Machiavelli to underscore Chrysler’s commitment to its new core values—accountability, honesty and reliability—is a bit of a stretch. Big Mac wasn’t known for his devotion to truth telling.
Strange that there’s no mention whatsoever of Chrysler’s valiant assembly workers, the UAW or suppliers. (Remember: the union/their VEBA owns a big chunk of Chrysler.) Back in the day, Lee never forgot to mention that Chrysler’s recovery was a team effort, and used every opportunity to sell, sell, sell!
In fact, did Sergio even mention cars? I know the presentation had plenty of car stuff. But the Divine Mr. M didn’t even acknowledge Chrysler’s customers, never mind selling the sizzle. And what of U.S. taxpayers? Surely this was an excellent opportunity to speak directly to the hard-working stiffs who gave ChryCo to Sergio for bupkis.
Anyway, Bobby McFerrin must be happy.
“English is his first language, yes …”
Sergio was born in Italy and migrated, along with his family, to Toronto at age 13. I imagine his first language must be Italian. He was educated in Canada and England, so yes one would expect his English to be quite good.
Kory,
Wait until you see the bill for the little piece of plastic to get the shifter out of park. There’s an aftermarket replacement for Chry POS piece. Your interior falling apart is unusual. Tie rods are not know for lasting.
Back on topic, Sergio said all is good, so drink the koolaid people :)
Yes, I will grant you Marchionne seems to be a shit-kicker, who will demand results as best as can be expected from the incredibly weak group that remains out in Auburn Hills.
But I’m not too encouraged, since I assume he approved every word of every PowerPoint slide, and most of them were drivel. Nearly everything presented as dramatic turnaround measures were things that, in any real company, are like tying your shoelaces in the morning. Given the self-evident things they say they’ll change, WTF has anyone been DOING there up to now?
And on the topic of Chrysler top management, let’s ignore the Cerberus years, since we know that was a scam, but what about Daimler, and the sainted Wolfgang Bernhard? Given the cars developed on his watch (not the ones he took credit for), and given the apparent lack of even minimal engineering, manufacturing, quality, marketing, or business sense, you have to wonder whether he was doing anything other than looking in the mirror, screwing secretaries, and seeking alternate employment.
Personally I believe that we have to give this guy a chance. He may not be a dynamic speaker but right now the stakeholders in Chrysler don’t need Dale Carnegie. The easiest thing in the world is to potshot the guy in a “shooting fish in a barrel” sense.Opinions based upon a corporate pep rally speech are hardly a fair assessment of the guy’s actual game plan. This is clearly a case of Monday morning quarterbacking before the game is even played.
@Robert Farago
Its obvious that one thing Marchionne isn’t is a “Corporate Suit”. Posters pissing and moaning about Chryslers or Fiats in the past really is not relevant to what he does now and in the future.
RF – your post is incredulous. I’ve read your posts so long, knocking the smooth-talking bs’ers whose plans are made up on the way to the convention centre, but delivered with glitzy glamour and some meaningless schmooze about “it was the honest brave workers that made it happen” (that no one believes is sincere). Now we have a guy who in his second language speaks with frightening honesty, for great length and depth, not shirking any tough question, and you want to criticise him already?!
If the main plank of your argument is that he quotes Machiavelli while talking about integrity, then you’ve got nothing on him. Maybe he was being ironic, or are you really tring to persuade us that he doesn’t know that Big Mac had a bad reputation?!
Kory815 – your reasons for Chrysler’s future failure. I think you do a great job of describing Chrysler’s PAST failures. Marchionne said that anything that happened pre-June 10th was “bad”. Surely what we have to work out is whether the direction he is trying to take F-Chry in is a good one, and whether or not he will be able to deliver on the stretch targets he elaborated. The rest is noise (like when an air-con vent falls off ;-)
Nothing to see here.
Chrysler’s fate is sealed. Just a matter of timing.
Any US Senator, Car-czar, congressperson or cabinet member who proposes giving this organization one more damned red cent ought to be strung up before sundown….then have their carcass run outta town on a rail.
Tricky Dicky
This was no ‘Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’ speech. Not even close. Not in the same ballpark, city, state, country, continent or planet.
Now here’s a guy who knows to sell, sell, sell.
If you crunch the numbers, you can see that the strategy is to move somewhat down market, while pumping up the volume and expanding internationally (presumably Latin America.) The goal is to more than double sales by 2014, while actually reducing the average price point, before even adjusting for inflation.
Read between the lines, and that means more production outside the US. That may be a combination of more production in Mexico, and with Chrysler buying federalized vehicles from Fiat that would presumably allow Fiat to better utilize its capacity.
Mr. Marchionne has more turnaround experience with car companies than I do, so I’m inclined to give him his due. Still, I’m skeptical of a plan that calls for such aggressive sales growth.
Assuming that production matches these ambitious sales expectations, fleet sales will likely be a substantial part of their future, so the costs had better be contained. Interestingly, Chrysler’s main rival will be Hyundai-Kia, as both will be targeting many of the same price points and will most likely end up fighting over the fleet market in order to use up their capacity. Fiat’s plan is to keep fleet sales stable as a percentage of total sales, but I can’t see how that could possibly happen.
@Kory815
My parents and I have owned nothing but Chryslers our whole lives (buy what we build) and I can honestly tell you that we have NEVER had so many things go wrong with a car like that. They have all been very dependable.
Cheap Daimler-induced interiors aside on the newer cars, the only real issue we’ve ever experienced has been failure of the 41TE (and others in that family of transmissions) transmission. I agree it’s been Chrysler’s biggest issue and is a complete piece of garbage. But that will FINALLY change soon.
@Kory815
I had a co-worker whose Dodge Caliber was stuck in park only 3 weeks off the lot. We all lined up to try and play Arthur pulling the ExCaliber of gear shifts in hope that one of us was destined to unclench it.
Alas, none was sucessful. She called a tow truck, the dealership, and her husband – in that order – and when the tow truck arrived she gave it one last try the damn thing moved like there was never a problem.
I have a new slogan for Marchionne:
“Chrysler. You get what you pay for.”