Culture Clash, Part 2: Chrysler Small-Car Big-Wig Outta There
July 08, 2009
By Bill Visnic
First it was Americans and Germans who couldn't make it work at Chrysler Group LLC. Now it might be Germans and Italians having trouble finding the love while mutually working to revive Chrysler.
Automotive News reports that barely a month after new managers from 20 percent owner Fiat S.p.A. hit the ground at Chrysler's Auburn Hills, Mich., headquarters, Andreas Schell -- a fast-track engineer-manager who stayed on after former Chrysler partner Daimler AG exited in 2007 -- is leaving the company.
This after Schell was just named vehicle line executive for Chrysler's A- and B-class cars, the compact and subcompact models it either will borrow wholesale from Fiat or on which future Chrysler small cars will be based.
Schell's abrupt departure leads to inevitable speculation about whether this reputedly "tuned-in" manager -- one just charged with overseeing the company's most crucial product program -- either already didn't like what he was seeing and hearing from Fiat executives in charge of running the "new" Chrysler or already determined the cultural differences will be as crippling as they proved to be with Daimler and Chrysler.
More to the point: Is this old-school culture clash - or something deeper? Schell's quick exit from the new, Italian-managed Chrysler could be a bellwether of future difficulties not only in yet again throwing together two (or three) disparate cultures but for the company's entire restructuring strategy.
After all, Chrysler's repeatedly said its recovery and subsequent growth is largely based on its ability to engineer and sell compact and subcompact models based on existing Fiat products and also leveraging fuel-saving Fiat powertrains and technologies.
If the guy just put in charge of making that happen has left Auburn Hills in a dead run, it might officially be time to begin serious questioning of Chrysler's ability to pull this thing off.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:58 AM under Chrysler , Featured , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
I don't think this marriage will survive.
Posted by: billddrummer | July 08, 2009 at 9:11 AM