Contrary to most automotive CEOs these days, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne does not assume that 2009 will be a year of losses for his company. In an interview with Automotive News
, the non-carguy chief executive said that assuming losses is a terrible message for the company.
"I think the first duty of a leader is to keep his company in the black. To accept - and announce - at the beginning of the year that you will lose money is the worst sign of leadership you could give to your troops," he said.
Marchionne went on to outline an outrageous plan to align Fiat's expenses with its expected revenues. "Nevertheless, I refuse to accept even the idea that our auto operations will lose money and I am reviewing all spending budgets on a daily basis" to prevent this from happening, Marchionne said.
Maybe that Chrysler/Fiat hookup might not be so bad after all.
firstwagon says:
12:47 PM, 03/10/09
Sounds like a man determined to make his company as success as opposed to other CEO's whose main goal is to look as bad as possible in order to maximise government handouts.
jederino says:
03:35 PM, 03/10/09
It could also sound delusional, depending upon your perspective.
firstwagon says:
04:27 PM, 03/10/09
Why? Because he doesn't subscribe to the "We're Doomed, We're Doomed" nonsense everyone else keeps repeating?
All car companies are still selling lots of cars, just not as many as before.
If they don't want to lose money, they just have spend less. I realize unions make this very hard but any good business man will adjust his business to match his expected sales for the year.
Last year was tough because few expected this large a downturn. Planning to lose money next year is just stupid though. You know what you're facing so deal with it.
estreka says:
01:00 AM, 03/11/09
He's half-right. Any senior leader is expected to be partially delusional. A good leader is somewhere between reality and the company's vision.
compliance says:
09:32 AM, 03/11/09
This sounds good unless you read it as "we are determined to fudge the numbers until we make a profit", which is what got us into this mess. I'm hoping this is not what he means.