Monday Jan 31, 2011
My friend who writes the car column for the Dallas Morning News commented that he sat in on a me
-eting with Sergio Marchionne, the head of FIAT. The writer commented that Marchionne was the most informed auto exec he had ever met.
This attention to detail as well as being a real 'car guy' incontrast to what we see at GM, Mullaly at Ford came from brom Boeing, hmm I wonder if he can fly a plane?, Marchionne's attention to a door handle is in contrast to what I read about Many CEOs who focus only on financial results. I don't know if this link works, but give it a try. As he says, ifyou want ot run a business you need to get involved at this level.
In Detroit he offices with the engineers rather than in the former plush office removed from the day to day action.
The article mentions his obsession with detail. I have often thought that doing things well is doing fifty small things correctly. by contrast, doing things poorly is the sum of doing fifty small things wrong.
And he is making provisions for paying back the government loan. I have been skeptical of Chrysler, but I also read that Angus McKenzie at Motor Trend had a favorable meeting with the management now on board. Maybe FIAT will make it this time in America. the convertible 124 in the 1960-70s was way ahead of similar British offerings at the time. FIAT did not modernize their emissions and finally left the US market.
At any rate we have Total Quality Management on display with this sort of attention. Chrylser has usually had great engines and in the 1960s had the best automatic transmission which they called torqueflite. This article notes many engines are mismatched with transmissions. AFter going through the recovery under Iacocoa, the disastrous sale to Mercedes, the sale to hedge fund Cerebus, and now FIAT, I have had my doubts. All the former managers were interested in was cutting costs, I know I would not buy a Chrysler product. My Dodge pickup had all kinds of problems after 100,000 miles, In contrast my Suburban was still going strong.
We shall see, this is a crowded automobile market, no one has an edge anymore.
Professor Elam 
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