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Chrysler and Fiat have hopes for happy relationship

By Zheng Lifei (Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-06 23:47

Sergio Marchionne CEO of Fiat arrives for a meeting in Berlin May 4, 2009.  [Agencies]

Under Daimler's control, Chrysler lost its knack for reading consumer tastes and delivering timely products, like the original minivan and its first Jeep Grand Cherokee. An Italian union leader, Giorgio Airaudo, said that Fiat did not operate that way.

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"The German managerial system is more rigid, hierarchical," Mr. Airaudo said. Mr. Marchionne has vowed not to stifle Chrysler's designers and engineers, or overwhelm its executives with demands from Italy.

"The mentality of Chrysler is closer to the Italians," said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

Mr. Dudenhöffer said that DaimlerChrysler was crippled by the endless committees that Mr. Schrempp and others favored in the decision-making process. "All they did was find arguments about why thing wouldn't work," he said.

Fiat also will not be taking over Chrysler from top to bottom as Daimler did upon acquiring it in a US$36 billion stock deal.

Initially, Fiat will have only a 20 percent stake in Chrysler, although it can increase its ownership to 35 percent by meeting benchmarks set by the Treasury Department.

And Mr. Marchionne has signaled that he will see Chrysler facilities himself before making changes to plants and products.

"Over the coming weeks and months, I will be spending a great deal of time meeting with Chrysler employees and touring its facilities," he said.

Experts in Italy said it was unlikely that Fiat would succumb to the overconfidence that Daimler exhibited when it took over Chrysler.

"In this unforeseeable situation for the world economy, everybody is under pressure to be humble," said Mario Monti, president of Bocconi University in Milan. "They shouldn't have inferiority complexes either."

 

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