Word: chrysler
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Eaton, now a lame duck, had basically surrendered Chrysler's power base. As Stallkamp had feared, the announcement undercut the Americans' influence with the Germans. He "abdicated," in the words of a DaimlerChrysler official. At a top-management seminar in Seville, Spain, last December, Eaton delivered a passionate speech on the new company and how its leaders had to band together to make it work. The oration left even Schrempp uncharacteristically at a loss for words. But by February the Germans were referring derisively to the speech as "Eaton's farewell...
From the start, the culture gap made DaimlerChrysler's post-marriage period of adjustment more difficult than that of any other merger around. When Stallkamp and two other Chrysler execs named Tom were introduced to their German counterparts, who by custom all use the title Doctor, Stallkamp broke the ice. "Titles are important in America too," he said. "'Tom' is the title you get when you have an M.B.A...
...Germans' laughter belied their misgivings. Many Daimler-Benz executives initially viewed Chrysler as a primped-up matron would regard an earnest young suitor. Chrysler marketing chief Jim Holden recalls his first meeting at the Mercedes-Benz U.S. headquarters in Montvale, N.J. As the Germans presented their view of the brand hierarchy--Mercedes on top and everything else far, far below--the tension in the room was palpable. Says Holden: "We felt like we were marrying up, and it was clear they thought they were marrying down...
...Chrysler culture that evolved in the '90s--a creative collection of industry renegades held in check by Eaton--was spectacularly unsuited for this European model of management. Eaton shaped a team of hotshots led by product wizards Bob Lutz and Francois Castaing. In addition to inventing the minivan and sport-utility vehicle, categories that are such profit machines today, Chrysler's designers proved with models like the Viper and the Prowler that cars don't have to be boring...
...Chrysler had become a world leader in low-cost, high-volume auto production. Purchasing arrangements had been revamped so that suppliers took on as much as 70% of the cost and manufacturing responsibility for new cars--a success that prompted the Harvard Business Review to describe Chrysler and its suppliers as an "American keiretsu," a reference to Japan's synergistic business groups...