[FCA] Sergio Marchionne - Riflessioni sulla necessita di aggregazioni nel settore

[pennellotref]

Interessante articolo di analisi dello stile gestionale della "Dea Kalì" di Auburn Hills, aka Maglione, corredato da dichiarazioni di alcuni dei suoi più importanti "discepoli":

Marchionne at center of complex, successful FCA

Marchionne at center of complex, successful FCA

Michael Wayland, The Detroit News 11:58 p.m. EDT July 1, 2015

(Photo: Antonio Calanni / AP)

Turin, Italy — Philosopher. Chess master. Capital junkie. All have been used to describe Sergio Marchionne, the blunt and outspoken CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV.

The 63-year-old executive has always had the auto industry talking — whether it's off-the-cuff comments about "wop engines" and government-subsidized electric cars, or his recent manifesto on industry consolidation, including an overture to General Motors Co.

Marchionne is bold and unapologetic, an outlier in an industry full of vanilla executives and lifers who led two of Detroit's automakers — including Chrysler — into government-backed bankruptcies in 2009. That allowed Marchionne to leverage the U.S. government to essentially give Fiat the assets of the bankrupt company. Six years later, Chrysler has been transformed into FCA US LLC, an Auburn Hills-based arm of London-based Fiat Chrysler that has legal domicile in the Netherlands.

It's a company as complex and successful as its Canadian-Italian CEO, with 63 months of consecutive year-over-year sales gains in the U.S.; more than 30,000 new jobs and billions of dollars in investments in the Midwest; and a renewed focus on performance and styling at Fiat Chrysler's Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrari. The automaker sold 4.75 million vehicles in 2014, making it the world's seventh-largest.

From Turin to Detroit, how has this turnaround occurred? At the heart of it is a management matrix — a complex, cross-functional, cross-business anomaly that assigns two or more roles to nearly all top-ranking executives. Marchionne is its epicenter.

"The benefit of the matrix is it certainly fosters collaboration and teamwork," Reid Bigland, head of U.S. sales, said in a recent interview at FCA US headquarters in Auburn Hills. "It also improves the speed of decision-making and the accuracy of decision-making."

Bigland — who also is head of Alfa Romeo North America and chairman, CEO and president of FCA Canada — has been in the Fiat Chrysler organization since the Italian automaker took a minority stake in Chrysler in June 2009.

The matrix has a complex set of managerial assignments and positions that have dozens of executives operating as a system. Everyone is directly or indirectly connected to Marchionne, who has 38 executives reporting directly to him as CEO and chief operating officer of North America (not including his role as Ferrari chairman). That's roughly three times more than General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra (12 executives) and more than double that of Ford Motor Co. CEO Mark Fields (17 executives).

The automaker's dependence on one strong executive at the center has helped it push ahead. It also raises questions as to how Fiat Chrysler will fare when Marchionne retires.

Marchionne expects results

In the Fiat Chrysler matrix, executives are empowered to make decisions. They're given clear goals. With that comes accountability. It would be impossible for Marchionne to micromanage all of his management team, so he expects results.

"You don't get it Day One, but after a few years this starts totally being in your blood, being part of your DNA," Olivier Francois, Fiat Chrysler chief marketing officer and head of the Fiat brand, said earlier this year. "And then you turn, you elaborate this concept of leadership — and you create your own theory of leadership."

Francois and Bigland have thrived and gained new roles to become part of the company's Group Executive Council, the highest decision-making body within Fiat Chrysler outside of its board of directors. Others haven't been so successful.

"In some cases, some guys haven't been able to consistently perform, and that's not personal, that's just business, and in many cases that's life," Bigland said. "Those expectations to perform are very clear. I think it's the essence of our performance-oriented culture that Mr. Marchionne has set up."

In June 2009, 23 executives were named to the Chrysler management team under Marchionne. Of those, roughly half are still with the company. Some retired, but at least seven left or were forced out.

"It's a huge request or demand put on the individuals in question," said Philippe Houchois, a managing director and head of European Autos Research at UBS Investment Bank. "It's a very demanding structure, but it's probably a reasonably cost-efficient structure."

The matrix is set up to have people under each executive ready to step up at any time. Each spring, a talent review is conducted of each manager's directly reporting executives and top talents, according to a recent Harvard Business case study. A manager must specify how many directly reporting executives are ready to succeed him or her immediately, how many will be ready within two to four years, and how many top talents are being nurtured. When a manager has fewer than two successors ready, it raises a yellow flag.

"You need to be a different kind of manager to play this game," said University of Turin business professor Bernardo Bertoldi, an author of the study. Marchionne's approach to management, according to the study, calls for a prodigious effort to identify and develop managers able to work in a flat, multi-tasking matrix organization.

Fiat Chrysler Head of Group Purchasing Scott Garberding, who started with Chrysler in 1993 and now is based in Italy, said serving two roles (he's also head of purchasing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa) has helped him thrive.

"If you're just the global lead, you're somewhat removed from the daily operation and, I think, somewhat less aware of the challenges that the organization faces," he said in Turin. "I think it's important to do both, if you're able."

Garberding and other executives said the management team benefits from the dual roles because everyone understands the others' positions and are forced to lean on each other for support.

"If there is someone with an ego, he gets automatically rejected from the system," Francois said. "There is zero self-consciousness of being important, because we don't think we are."

Marchionne also has been known to move executives like chess pieces to avoid complacency and bring fresh eyes.

A question of succession

Even though top managers must groom potential successors, it is unclear who would succeed Marchionne.

"Sergio is definitely the glue that holds the entire organization together and deserves a disproportionate amount of credit for the success of Chrysler, for sure," Bigland said. "He is a very unique individual."

But take the center away from a system, and it can collapse. While Marchionne has said Fiat Chrysler — which he commonly refers to as "this house" and "the machine" — will carry on after he's gone, there are considerable doubts as to whether it could operate the same without him.

"It has been an issue for a long, long time," said UBS' Houchois. "A lot of things, in terms of governance, are done well at Fiat Chrysler. That part of it though, the individual risk, is a major concern."

In Fiat Chrysler's 2014 annual report, the importance of Marchionne and other top leaders is stressed as being a risk factor: "If we were to lose his services or those of any of our other senior executives or key employees, it could have a material adverse effect on our business prospects, earnings and financial position."

It's not farfetched that a successor would come from within, whether Marchionne retires in 2018 or later. Recent comments by him suggest he will stay past 2018. Possible successors from the Group Executive Council likely include Bigland; Michael Manley, head of Jeep and chief operating officer for Asia-Pacific; Alfredo Altavilla, head of business development and COO for Europe; and Harald Wester, head of Alfa Romeo and Maserati, and the company's technology chief. Marchionne's roles as CEO and North American COO could be split between two executives.

Bertoldi argues that while Marchionne has driven the cultural changes within the company, the matrix will live on because many members don't know any other way.

Numerous executives described working for Fiat Chrysler as a philosophy, almost a passion.

"There are a lot of people that are very personally invested," Garberding said. "And I don't mean due to money, I mean due to the emotion of going through some of the experiences that we've been through to let it come to this, it would be unbearable to somehow let it fall apart."

Francois describes it as "sense of belonging to something" and "this notion of making history." Bigland said it's about being part of an ongoing team process that spawns continuous collaboration. Fiat Chrysler global head of design Ralph Gilles described it as "a subterranean bond."

No matter what it's called, it holds together the organization surrounding its charismatic CEO and fuels Fiat Chrysler's growth.

[McNab]

Articolo veramente intressante

[pennellotref]

Fiat Scion?s Strategy Toward GM: Patience - WSJ

Fiat Scion’s Strategy Toward GM: Patience

John Elkann expects to press General Motors again on a merger within a couple of years

Eric Sylvers and

Christina Rogers

Updated July 6, 2015 8:46 p.m. ET

MILAN— John Elkann, chairman of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and scion of Italy’s Agnelli family, isn’t giving up on forging a partnership with General Motors Co., despite being rebuffed by his Detroit rival twice in the past four years.

Mr. Elkann and Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne had approached GM in 2012 and again earlier this year, arguing that steep new technology investments will push the highly fragmented car industry to consolidate.

“GM hasn’t been put to rest,” the 39-year-old Mr. Elkann said in an interview in a Milan conference room where he presented himself as a determined and patient believer that Fiat Chrysler, with €96.1 billion ($106.81 billion) in annual revenue last year, eventually will find a partner. “GM is not the only option, but no doubt from a feasibility and quantum point of view it is by far the best.”

On Monday, a GM spokesman reiterated the company’s lack of interest in a merger. Its chief executive recently said the largest U.S. auto maker has ample scale and would focus on achieving returns on invested capital of more than 20%.

A deal with GM, which has a market value nearly three times that of Fiat Chrysler, would be a crowning achievement for Mr. Elkann who has transformed his family’s holding company by moving into new industries and diversifying outside of Europe.

Mr. Marchionne, 63, has been the public face of Fiat Chrysler’s merger campaign. Mr. Elkann, the great-great-grandson of Fiat’s founder, largely has remained behind the scenes in developing the consolidation strategy for Fiat Chrysler, in which the family’s holding company Exor SpA owns a 29% stake.

Some analysts say Fiat Chrysler, the seventh largest auto maker by volume, needs a merger more than its peers. Its debt load is tops among big car makers, its profit margins are half that of bigger rivals, and it is now suffering troubles in Brazil and lacks a major presence in China. Analysts say its troubles could worsen if the industry were to slow from here.

“They have a lot more scale than what they used to have but what they used to have was abysmal, and what they have now is just bad,” said Morningstar Inc. auto analyst Richard Hilgert.

Last year, Mr. Marchionne promised Fiat Chrysler would address many of its weaknesses by investing €48 billion through 2018 to roll out dozens of new models and boost sales by 60% over 2013’s 4.4 million. Some analysts say the plan is unachievable, pointing to high sales goals and recent delays in producing new vehicles.

But Mr. Elkann, who is on the board of News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, insisted rivals will come around to Fiat Chrysler’s thinking and discussions would begin. “There is no pressure on time,” said Mr. Elkann. “In 2012 we had a conversation [with GM]. In 2015 we had a conversation. We might have a conversation in 2017 or 2018.”

That belief in the inevitability of industry mergers has strengthened his bond with Mr. Marchionne. Earlier this year, Mr. Elkann appointed his former mentor as Exor’s vice chairman amid a $6.8 billion hostile bid for Bermuda-registered reinsurance company PartnerRe Ltd.

“Having him closer to us is both a sign to recognize what he has done, but also to have Sergio help build our future,” said Mr. Elkann.

Mr. Elkann is the grandson of Gianni Agnelli, the businessman who chaired Fiat for three decades and was the country’s most well-known industrialist. He was thrust into the family business at 21, when he took a seat on Fiat’s board and became the heir-in-waiting to Italy’s leading industrial group.

Known as Jaki to friends and family, Mr. Elkann was 26 when Mr. Agnelli died. A year later, Gianni’s brother, Umberto, died, leaving Mr. Elkann to cope with a car maker that had racked up €6 billion in losses in 2002 and 2003. Italian banks, which held a $3 billion loan that the company was unable to pay, were pressing the family to sell.

“Most of us [in the family] said we’d do anything not to find ourselves in that position again,” said Delfina Rattazzi, the daughter of Gianni Agnelli’s sister Susanna. “The family has never been closer and the support for John has never been stronger.”

Instead of selling, Mr. Elkann got the family to invest more money in Fiat—€1.43 billion since he took the helm—and hired Mr. Marchionne. The pair stanched Fiat’s sizable losses and took over a bankrupt Chrysler in a move that reinvigorated both companies.

Messrs. Elkann and Marchionne approached GM on a merger in 2012. At the time, GM was pursuing a European partnership with France’s PSA Peugeot Citroën.

Mr. Elkann noted to GM’s management that an earlier such arrangement with Fiat had ended in acrimony with the American company paying $2 billion in 2005 to get out of an obligation to buy its Italian partner’s car business.

“We were trying to say, ‘why do this [partnership] which has not worked with us?’ try and do a combination that has much more opportunities of working,’ ” Mr. Elkann said, encouraging GM to agree to deeper ties than the first GM-Fiat venture had allowed.

He said that GM’s management countered with a list of Fiat’s weakness as a merger partner, including: Fiat Chrysler at a time didn’t fully own Chrysler, it was losing money in Europe, and Jeep, Alfa and Maserati were aspirational brands without much growth potential.

GM and Peugeot went ahead with their deal in 2012, but the savings were well below the pair’s original targets. GM quickly sold its 7% stake in Peugeot that had been acquired as part of the alliance.

Since Mr. Elkann’s 2012 approach, GM’s shares are up 30%, while Fiat Chrysler’s have tripled. That split highlights the “missed opportunity,” said Mr. Elkann.

Earlier this year, Messrs. Elkann and Marchionne tried again, presenting a laundry list of Fiat Chrysler’s accomplishments since 2012. Fiat had gained complete control of Chrysler and was making money in Europe after more than seven years of losses. Jeep sales had almost tripled to more than one million and Maserati was growing strongly.

In short, the pair’s message was “let’s merge and make the real GM, the biggest and most profitable car company in the world, which will be based in the U.S.,” said Mr. Elkann.

But GM CEO Mary Barra was unmoved by Mr. Elkann’s latest reasoning. Instead, GM’s board believes the No. 1 U.S. auto maker can continue to grow on its own. With capacity to build 10 million vehicles annually, GM’s chief says the challenge is to “merge with ourselves,” hemming together the company’s broad patchwork of operations.

While he waits for another opportunity, Mr. Elkann is keeping the door open to another merger partner, although he said no talks are currently under way. Ford Motor Co. isn’t a good match because it isn’t interested in a broad multibrand strategy, he said.

“Sometimes extreme situations like a crisis force things to happen. I’d rather us not have to do something within those circumstances,” Mr. Elkann said.

Non si può certo dire che il semi-ovino non sia stato chiaro ! Non è un fan dell'ermetismo.....

Modificato 7 Luglio 2015 da pennellotref

[justjames]

IMHO, è Luglio, devono riempire i giornali in qualche modo...

[pennellotref]

IMHO, è Luglio, devono riempire i giornali in qualche modo...

Si, è vero............Però qui ci sono virgolettati molto chiari che, se non inventati, fanno riflettere.........

[espresso]

Si, è vero............Però qui ci sono virgolettati molto chiari che, se non inventati, fanno riflettere.........

Purtroppo sembra chiarissimo che gli Agnelli vogliano disimpegnarsi. Il messaggio di Jaki è: voi americani datemi un amano che vi riconsegno Chrysler con Fiat, Alfa e Maserati. L'insistere sulla sede Americana fa capire molto.

Non è un bel messaggio per l'Italia.

[pennellotref]

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Modificato 7 Luglio 2015 da pennellotref

[justjames]

Purtroppo sembra chiarissimo che gli Agnelli vogliano disimpegnarsi. Il messaggio di Jaki è: voi americani datemi un amano che vi riconsegno Chrysler con Fiat, Alfa e Maserati. L'insistere sulla sede Americana fa capire molto.

Non è un bel messaggio per l'Italia.

Ancora?!?!

[Guest EC2277]

Se potessi avere un centesimo per ogni 10 volte che ho letto 'sta storia del disimpegno degli Agnelli, potrei ripagare da solo il debito di Grecia, Italia, Spagna ed Ucraina.

[gpat]

Se potessi avere un centesimo per ogni 10 volte che ho letto 'sta storia del disimpegno degli Agnelli, potrei ripagare da solo il debito di Grecia, Italia, Spagna ed Ucraina.

Al massimo una Goleador al tabacchi