Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Chrysler (and Fiat) made a speech to an economic think tank recently and took some big swings at the efforts of European governments to bail out their own auto companies. We thought this was insanely hypocritical since Chrysler got a massive stack of government (taxpayer) money to keep from totally folding up. Reading deeper into the story changed our perspective though.
Marchionne cited certain examples of European governments doing things that actually made the situation worse for car companies. France, for example, bailed out Renault and Pugeot with the stipulation that they keep their plants open and churning out cars they already cannot sell. Amazingly for us, it actually could be worse.
He also made mention of a basic road map to saving Chrysler. As expected lots of Fiat technology and engineering will be involved, and frankly, that cannot be a bad thing. We own a late-model Chrysler and if they continued to use the horrid stuff they used on our car, death would be certain.
This guy clearly has stones and he managed to turn Fiat around when it was in a mess that makes Chrysler’s situation look like a minor bump in the road. GM may want to think about finding Marchionne’s twin when they hunt for their new CEO. The man has a clear vision, no illusions that it will be an easy road, and the expectation that some blood will be shed in the process.
See the Wall Street Journal story here.
