{"id":128027,"date":"2018-07-21T15:56:47","date_gmt":"2018-07-21T19:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=128027"},"modified":"2018-07-22T13:50:06","modified_gmt":"2018-07-22T17:50:06","slug":"marchionne-out-manley-in-as-fiat-chrysler-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2018\/07\/marchionne-out-manley-in-as-fiat-chrysler-ceo\/","title":{"rendered":"Marchionne Out, Manley In as Fiat Chrysler CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Larger than life: Marchionne outlined a broad 5-year-plan during a day-long June session in Milan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced on Saturday that Jeep and Ram brand boss Michael Manley will replace CEO Sergio Marchionne, who due to complications from recent surgery is gravely ill and will not return to work.<\/p>\n

Though the 66-year-old Marchionne was known to have undergone surgery this past week for what was reported to be a shoulder problem. According to FCA\u2019s statement, the Italian-born and Canadian-educated Marchionne experienced \u201cunexpected complications,\u201d while his conditions had \u201cworsened significantly in recent hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Subscribe Now!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Word of Marchionne\u2019s departure quickly echoed through the automotive grapevine. Few industry executives have had a higher profile presence in recent decades, and even fewer could be said to have done more to shape a company in his own image as did Marchionne, who rescued the then-bankrupt Chrysler by securing a U.S. government bailout and then merging it with Italy\u2019s Fiat S.p.A.<\/p>\n

“For so many, Sergio has been an enlightened leader and a matchless point of reference,\u201d said John Elkann, FCA\u2019s chairman and heir to the Agnelli family that founded Fiat and still holds a controlling stake in the trans-Atlantic automaker. “He taught us that the only question that\u2019s worth asking oneself at the end of every day is whether we have been able to change something for the better, whether we have been able to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Marchionne shown during an appearance with John Elkann, FCA chairman and Agnelli heir.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(Just four brands will dominate the future for FCA. <\/em>Click Here<\/a> to learn more.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong>A brilliant strategist, Marchionne was born in a Abruzzo, Italy and migrated with his family to Toronto when he was 13. He earned degrees at the University of Toronto and later at the University of Windsor, a tunnel or bridge ride away from Detroit. While not an automotive \u201clifer,\u201d he was brought on by Fiat in May 2003 and then was named its CEO the following year.<\/p>\n

The Italian automaker faced serious problems at the time but Marchionne won kudos for quickly improving its fortunes, quickly proving himself \u201can extraordinarily dynamic individual, with quite a lot of energy,\u201d said David Cole, the director-emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan.<\/p>\n

But the real test would come in 2009, as the Great Recession struck the auto industry, driving two of Detroit\u2019s Big Three into bankruptcy. While then-president Obama was ready to bail out General Motors he considered letting Chrysler go under \u2013 until Marchionne came along as the U.S. automaker\u2019s white knight. What started as a Euro-American alliance eventually resulted in a formal merger and, proving his energy level never flagged, Marchionne routinely commuted between corporate offices in Italy, the Detroit suburbs and London, where FCA is legally headquartered.<\/p>\n

There is little doubt the company is in far better shape than when he stepped in to save Chrysler. In June, at a corporate strategy conference called to outline latest FCA\u2019s 5-year plan, Marchionne declared meeting one of his most critical goals: eliminating the company\u2019s industrial debt. Only two months earlier, Marchionne was able to announce a record first-quarter profit of $1.24 billion.<\/p>\n

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Jeep boss - and new FCA CEO Mike Manley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Much of that credit goes to just two brands: Jeep and Ram, beneficiaries of the massive shift from traditional passenger cars to light trucks. Since the two sides of FCA came together, Jeep has shifted from a largely American-based brand into a global powerhouse, sales roughly tripling to around 2 million SUVs a year. Ram, while remaining more U.S.-centric, nonetheless has challenged bigger brands like Ford and Chevrolet and now generates the bulk of Fiat Chrysler\u2019s global revenue.<\/p>\n

New CEO Manley built his own reputation on his work at Jeep, which he\u2019s run since 2009 and, later, Jeep. The 54-year-old British native \u2013 who originally joined the old DaimlerChrysler in 2000, surviving its break-up and the subsequent bankruptcy \u2013 was a key architect of the new five-year plan outlined in Milan nearly two months ago.<\/p>\n

The plan was not quite as well-received by Wall Street as FCA executives had hoped, said analyst Joe Phillippi, of AutoTrends Consulting. And, even before Marchionne\u2019s surgery, that triggered concerns he might have lost some support from the Agnelli family. \u201cThey may not have been happy that the street said \u2018ho-hum.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

FCA Chairman Elkann\u2019s lengthy tribute statement appears aimed at dismissing any speculation that Marchionne was forced out, however.<\/p>\n

While there is no doubt the now-former CEO made a number of critical steps while at the FCA helm, his work was far from complete. Though Marchionne hasn\u2019t said much about the topic of late, he spent much of his years as chief executive trying to hunt down an alliance or merger partner that could increase FCA\u2019s economies of scale and pump in both cash and technological help.<\/p>\n

(What’s Fiat Chrysler Automobiles without a Fiat or a Chrysler? <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> to see what their (diminished) roles will be.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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A big challenge for Manley now will be building momentum for two Italian brands, including Alfa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the big challenges facing Manley will be to position FCA as a player, rather than a laggard, in the critical areas of autonomous driving and electrification. His former boss did take a few steps, launching a plug-in hybrid version of the Chrysler Pacifica minivan and doing a deal to sell more than 60,000 of those hybrid vans to self-driving tech leader Waymo. Meanwhile, two of FCA\u2019s European brands, Alfa Romeo and Maserati now plan to electrify large chunks of their product lines.<\/p>\n

Along with Jeep and Ram, Alfa and Maserati were identified in the Milan meeting as central to FCA\u2019s global ambitions. But they have a lot to do to live up to expectations. \u201cOn the negative side, (Marchionne) burned a lot of cash trying to revive Alfa Romeo and it\u2019s still a work in progress,\u201d said Phillippi.<\/p>\n

While Maserati, the more luxurious of the two brands, has been gaining traction, especially since it launched its first SUV, Alfa has struggled, sales currently lagging well behind what was outlined in Marchionne\u2019s previous five-year plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe original five-year plan wasn\u2019t wrong,\u201d Alfa and Maserati brand chief Tim Kuniskis said during an interview with NBC last month. \u201cWe said we\u2019d sell 400,000 (Alfas a year) and we will. It\u2019s just taking longer to get there,\u201d in part, he said, because Alfa has shifted product plans to emphasize SUVs, rather than sedans, reflecting global market trends.<\/p>\n

The new plan surprised some observers with the strategy of all but dismissing FCA\u2019s two marquee brands. But marchionne insisted that while the Fiat and Chrysler badges will shrink in importance they will remain part of the corporate portfolio, as will Dodge, which will put even more emphasis on building American-style muscle cars.<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> to check out the 10,000 hp version of the Dodge Charger Hellcat.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether Manley will make any moves away from the strategies outlined by his former boss will likely take some time to play out. He was widely seen as Marchionne\u2019s heir-apparent, but he also was expected to retain his post helming Jeep and Ram for nearly another year. \u00a0While he had a strong input into the five-year plan, Manley will now have to take ownership of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly a year before his scheduled retirement, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced on Saturday that CEO Sergio Marchionne will step down, with Jeep and Ram brand boss Michael Manley named to replace him. What will be Marchionne’s legacy be? And what challenges face Manley? The story from TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,10,12,9],"tags":[],"make":[33,46,49,51,54,69,98],"post-state":[],"category_old":[208,150,151,313,123,228,246,318,173,319,155,299,191,262,171,158,152,154,169,253,132,159,125,217,137,139,312,291],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128027"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=128027"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=128027"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=128027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}