The shine is off the new GM for investors
04-20-11 | 11:29 AM
#31
From Wikipedia:
"Robert Louis Nardelli (born May 17, 1948, in Old Forge, Pennsylvania) was the chairman and chief executive officer of Chrysler. He had earlier served in a similar capacity at The Home Depot from December 2000 to January 2007. Prior to that, Nardelli had risen to become one of the top four executives at General Electric. CNBC named Nardelli as one of the "Worst American CEOs of All Time".
... During Nardelli's tenure, Home Depot stock was essentially steady while competitor Lowe's stock doubled, which along with his $240 million compensation eventually earned the ire of investors.[2] His blunt, critical and autocratic management style turned off employees and the public. Nardelli was notably criticized for cutting back on knowledgeable full-time employees with experience in the trades and replacing them with part-time help with little relevant experience.[3] This move reduced costs, but hurt customer service at a time when Lowe's was making inroads nationwide. While the board strongly stood by him for most of his tenure, questions about his leadership mounted in 2006, and in an ominous portent of the near future, he was the only director present at the annual meeting; he only allowed shareholders to speak for a minute each....
On December 4, 2008, in an appearance on CNN's Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, when asked "So what do you say about the argument that the Japanese, the Germans, Koreans make better cars than the Americans?" Nardelli responded, "We spent about half a billion dollars in the first several months. Our warranty costs are down 29%. It's an interesting comparison because in the hearing today, going around the panel, the majority of the Senators said that citing specific vehicles that they own that they've got 60, 70, 80,000 miles. The comment was you guys are making them too good and therefore, we're not buying vehicles and we're contributing to your problem. That was from the Senators on the committee today."[10] On April 30, 2009 Bob Nardelli announced that he would leave the company as soon as the bankruptcy was over.
On March 17, 2009, Nardelli said that Chrysler Financial would require a second round of loans.[11] On April 21, 2009, it was revealed that a $750 million loan from the government was turned down, on the grounds that it would have required that executive compensation be capped.[12] On April 30, 2009, Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and it was announced that Nardelli's replacement (Sergio Marchionne [13]) would likely face a pay cap"
"Robert Louis Nardelli (born May 17, 1948, in Old Forge, Pennsylvania) was the chairman and chief executive officer of Chrysler. He had earlier served in a similar capacity at The Home Depot from December 2000 to January 2007. Prior to that, Nardelli had risen to become one of the top four executives at General Electric. CNBC named Nardelli as one of the "Worst American CEOs of All Time".
... During Nardelli's tenure, Home Depot stock was essentially steady while competitor Lowe's stock doubled, which along with his $240 million compensation eventually earned the ire of investors.[2] His blunt, critical and autocratic management style turned off employees and the public. Nardelli was notably criticized for cutting back on knowledgeable full-time employees with experience in the trades and replacing them with part-time help with little relevant experience.[3] This move reduced costs, but hurt customer service at a time when Lowe's was making inroads nationwide. While the board strongly stood by him for most of his tenure, questions about his leadership mounted in 2006, and in an ominous portent of the near future, he was the only director present at the annual meeting; he only allowed shareholders to speak for a minute each....
On December 4, 2008, in an appearance on CNN's Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, when asked "So what do you say about the argument that the Japanese, the Germans, Koreans make better cars than the Americans?" Nardelli responded, "We spent about half a billion dollars in the first several months. Our warranty costs are down 29%. It's an interesting comparison because in the hearing today, going around the panel, the majority of the Senators said that citing specific vehicles that they own that they've got 60, 70, 80,000 miles. The comment was you guys are making them too good and therefore, we're not buying vehicles and we're contributing to your problem. That was from the Senators on the committee today."[10] On April 30, 2009 Bob Nardelli announced that he would leave the company as soon as the bankruptcy was over.
On March 17, 2009, Nardelli said that Chrysler Financial would require a second round of loans.[11] On April 21, 2009, it was revealed that a $750 million loan from the government was turned down, on the grounds that it would have required that executive compensation be capped.[12] On April 30, 2009, Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and it was announced that Nardelli's replacement (Sergio Marchionne [13]) would likely face a pay cap"
When I left Home Depot, I wanted to go to a private equity firm to get under the radar screen; no visibility, just go do my job. Then at Chrysler I was called to attend four Congressional hearings, so it kind of didn’t work out that way for me. I got ambushed, as all of you know. Shame on me. We flew to the first hearing, drove to the second one. I stayed at Holiday Inn Express and at the TA truck stop just to validate that I was going through a lot of pain to sit at the Congressional hearings for six hours straight, while Congress people were coming and going and having a gay ol’ time with us in Washington.
We had to get people to think a little more broadly than that. There’s a saying, “If you had a buck, you’d spend 99 cents on talent.” Rings loud with me. If we’re honest, we all probably have leather-bound binders on the shelf with great strategies that no one will ever know about because we didn’t have the talent to execute them.
Last edited by Infra; 04-20-11 at 11:32 AM.
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