What is WRONG with this country that a man who almost cratered one company gets to run another one into the ground? Like Chrysler didn’t have enough problems, they pick THIS asshat to run it?
Geez, I don’t even need my MBA to know this will be another disaster. The man nearly destroyed Home Depot. It’s only now recovering at all. We literally stopped shopping there, it was so bad.
Well, I know I’ll never buy another U.S. made car again anyway. Geez, didn’t we rule this industry once? Too bad the Harvard MBAs can’t figure out that people actually want decently made cars with great fuel efficiency, isn’t it?
Cerberus Capital Management, indeed. A three headed monster for sure….
Ex-Home Depot Chief Taking Reins at Chrysler – New York Times
Robert L. Nardelli, who was ousted as chief executive of Home Depot amid shareholder discontent this year over his enormous pay package, is taking on one of the most prominent jobs in corporate America: revitalizing the troubled automaker Chrysler.
Chrysler’s new owner, the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, chose Mr. Nardelli because of his turnaround expertise, people with direct knowledge of the Cerberus plans said.
5 Responses
I saw the news on that hiring. It appears that modern thinking is that the ability to operate a company successfully (I’m not saying this guy ran HOme Depot successfully) is fungible. If you are a great executive at an ice cream company, you can surely be president of Boeing. The notion, I suppose, is that knowledge of how to design and build and market cars is for apparatchiks, but knowledge of how to play “the great game” is for some sort of business elite. Frankly, I think this is horseshit. I think this all started with incomrehensible notions of corporate “culture,” “mission statements” and other modern non-speak. Mission statement? Let’s see, I work for Caterpillar Tractor. I’m too damn dumb to know that the company makes heavy equipment and industrial engines, and that to succeed it needs to make and market them well. Even hospitals have friggin’ mission statements!?
Chrysler’s problem is not one of corporate culture. Chrysler’s problem is that they make crappy cars, have for time out of mind, and have continued to exist at all for reasons which continue to escape me. Someone close to me rented a PT Cruiser recently while on a trip. She said the car handled like crap (the typical American car: loosey goosey steering and no directional stability), was uncomfortable, underpowered (a bit more on this below), and got terrible gas mileage. Why should a car with so little power it can’t get out of its own way also get terrible gas mileage–at least give us some economy if we drive the dogs you make!
Regarding power, my friend has driven my Element a number of times. She really, really, doesn’t like it much, but despite the fact that it is pretty heavy for a small vehicle, she has never complained of the power or gas mileage.
I cannot fathom buying an “American” car again.
Perhaps you’ll find this funny. One day I was talking to the representative of my honey’s business landlord outside. We were parked next to each other. He had a big “American” SUV, I had a “Japanese” box (Element). We got a laugh out of that. His “American” SUV was “built” in Mexico, and my Japanese Element was built in Ohio (or Indiana).
So, good luck to Cerebus. Too bad they didn’t have the pizzazz to put someone with vision regarding the future of motoring in charge of the company, thus contributing to the state of the world, and providing job security for employees (did I hear they are gonna get rid of about 13,000 of ’em?).
Well, Gerry, I grew up as an engineer, and when I saw them starting to put the marketing execs in charge, I always knew it was over for the company I was at.
I’ve got an MBA, I know what they teach in business school. What they don’t teach you is to TRUST the people who know how to do their jobs and to understand that THEY are the ones who know how that job is best done. It isn’t about “cutting costs” or “efficiency” or any of that crap. It’s about hiring good people, teaching them to do their job well, and giving them the best equipment possible to work with. If you do that, you succeed. Yes, you need good marketing people too. But they have to know and understand the business they are in.
Executives don’t make a company, especially if they are asshats who think they are the “important” people.
What does he care if he mucks things up for Chrysler? Worst case scenario: he gets another big ‘just go away’ severance package. Humph!
Chrysler and Home Depot? Pretty small potatos. If he were *really* good at driving intitutions into the ground the Republicans would get their pals to make him POTUS.
Something in me wants to laugh (slightly insanely) and suggest that they felt so bad for him, they thought they’d give him a chance to play with cars instead of tools. 🙂