Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Yikes. That sums up my response to the announcement of the installation of Bob Nardelli as chairman and CEO of Chrysler this morning. As long as Bob Lutz holds on to GM, it's Planes, Trains, and Automobiles here in the D.

My dad worked for General Electric Locomotive Division some time ago. He never really talked about GE much, only to relate the occasional anecdote about the mystical manner in which GE was managed. The engineers weren't really in charge of much, to put it mildly. Justifying costs on a locomotive with safety instead of customer-inspired product upgrades means product planning isn't going the way it should. It's not happening at all. And when it comes to things that cost a lot of money, product is king. Bean-counting, Mr Nardelli's best skill, was making life hell for the guys who build the locomotives that keep the lumber moving from forests to homesites. It's a miracle the guy made it to Home Depot - cost cutting doesn't keep the locomotives rolling out of the factory, and it sure as hell doesn't make home centers the best places to shop. A quick survey at any Lowe's will tell you that. Our local HD is so bad that we call it Tent Depot in response to its lack of product and inventory. I'm sure it's efficient as all get out, though.

Bringing a cost accountant with expansionist tendencies into a business that already sets standards for efficiency and overcapacity looks like a recipe for a bad trip. Considering that Wolfgang Bernhard has been waiting inthe wings to return his successful formula for automotive branding and product planning (too successful for Hrs P&P of VAG, apparently), the choice of Nardelli is even more confounding. Bob Lutz has shown over and over that Car Guys are what it takes to turn around an automaker. Alan Mullaly harbors no misconceptions about the role of product in the product line. But Nardelli? Chrysler doesn't need his kind of Evolution.