In his office at Chrysler’s world headquarters, Robert L. Nardelli, the chairman, works standing at an elevated desk. He thinks better on his feet, he said, even when he uses his computer.þþBut with the automaker Chrysler on the brink of insolvency, his legs must be getting sore, The New York Times’s Bill Vlasic notes.þþJust two weeks remain before a presidential task force is scheduled to decide whether to save Chrysler and endorse its viability plan, and Mr. Nardelli has been putting in long hours to help save the company.þþHe prefers to wave off any discussion about his role as a central player in those efforts. “It’s not about Bob,” he told The Times Monday in an interview. “If we’re able to do this, it’s because these people here have put together a plan we believe in.”þþBut, as the executive in charge, it inevitably is about Mr. Nardelli and his reputation. After his abrupt departure as chairman of the retailer Home Depot, Mr. Nardelli was viewed by many in the auto industry as a short-term chief executive when he was installed by Cerberus Capital Management after the private equity firm bought Chrysler in August 2007. Industry observers expected him to streamline Chrysler so Cerberus could sell it.þþBut in the 19 months since, Mr. Nardelli has become a passionate leader of Chrysler. Like Lee Iacocca in the 1980s, Mr. Nardelli, 60, is trying to make the case that the American auto industry is better off with Chrysler than without it.þþ“Quite honestly, we are in a survival mode,” he told The Times. The company needs an additional $5 billion in government loans to survive, on top of the $4 billion it has received.þþChrysler’s updated restructuring plan, filed Feb. 17 with the Treasury Department, asserts that, if it receives an additional loan, it can stabilize its finances and grow beyond its core North American market. President Obama’s task force is now weighing that argument.þþNo major automaker suffered more last year than Chrysler when a weak economy and tight credit slashed industry sales in the United States. While industry sales fell 18 percent, Chrysler’s sales plummeted 30 percent.þþThe company also lost $8 billion and nearly ran out of money before receiving its first infusion of government loans.þþMr. Nardelli has already stripped down Chrysler’s operations, cutting 32,000 jobs and shedding 1.2 million units of annual production capacity since 2007. He also vigorously sought partners to help Chrysler to expand its product lineup and its tiny presence in international markets.þþHe cut deals on product sharing with foreign manufacturers like Nissan and Volkswagen. Last fall, Chrysler entered merger talks with General Motors, only to have G.M. pull out because of its own financial problems.þþWith Chrysler’s finances in a free fall, it seemed unlikely that Mr. Nardelli could find another car company willing to join forces. But in January, he reached an agreement in principle for a global alliance with the Italian automaker Fiat. The deal would give Fiat a 35 percent stake in Chrysler in exchange for providing it with small cars, engines, and technology.þþFiat’s chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, said at the time that Chrysler could benefit greatly from sharing products, technology and parts with his company.þþ“I think Chrysler has all the prerequisites to survive,” he told The Times in an interview last month.þþMr. Nardelli said Monday that Chrysler could make it on its own with more federal loans.þþ“Chrysler is viable as a stand-alone business, but Fiat significantly enhances that viability,” he told The Times.þþNot everyone agrees.þþSenator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, has been an ardent foe of bailout money for Chrysler.þþ“I have not seen a way that Chrysler makes it as a stand-alone entity,” Mr. Corker told The Times in an interview Monday.þþLinking with Fiat, he said, does not appear to solve Chrysler’s problems. “It’s really a merger of two weaker entities, though I think it’s better than Chrysler being on its own,” Mr. Corker told The Times.þþMr. Nardelli bristled at the notion that Fiat could not help Chrysler. He said Fiat’s small-car programs, engines and other expertise were worth $8 billion to $10 billion, and that the alliance would save 5,000 Chrysler manufacturing jobs in the United States.þþThe alliance would also allow Chrysler to almost immediately begin exporting its Jeeps and other products to Fiat dealerships in Europe and South America.þþ“They have what we don’t, and they are where we aren’t,” Mr. Nardelli told The Times of Fiat.þþTask force members, including the top advisers Steven Rattner and Ron Bloom, met with Mr. Nardelli last week, and toured a Chrysler truck plant in Warren, Mich. Mr. Bloom and Mr. Rattner asked “great questions,” Mr. Nardelli said. But he added that he had no sense of what the task force would decide.þþ“I would say it’s been a very good relationship, not a strained relationship,” he told The Times. “But certainly you could say that all options are still on the table.”þþOne option that Mr. Nardelli says he fears is a government-managed bankruptcy.þþIn its restructuring plan, Chrysler said it would require up to $25 billion in debtor-in-possession financing from the government during a bankruptcy reorganization. However, Mr. Nardelli said he worried that consumers would shun Chrysler vehicles if the company filed for bankruptcy.þþ“I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t have a lot of confidence in today’s environment that we can emerge from bankruptcy,” he said.þþIn an interview with The Detroit Free Press, Mr. Rattner was quoted Monday saying that bankruptcy “is not our goal” for G.M. or Chrysler. “It is never a good outcome for any company, and it’s never a first choice,” he added.þþMr. Nardelli showed little patience for rehashing his departure from Home Depot, where he doubled sales but was criticized by investors for what they called his blunt management style and his high compensation.þþHe left in 2007 with a severance package estimated at more than $200 million — and landed at Chrysler, where he now takes a salary of $1 a year, though he is believed to have an undisclosed financial interest in the company.þþIf Chrysler gets its loans, Mr. Nardelli will have a chance to become the savior of the 84-year-old American industrial giant. But without more federal aid, he will be remembered as its last chief executive.þþEverything is riding on its restructuring plan. “If I didn’t believe in it,” Mr. Nardelli told The Times, “I wouldn’t have put my name on it.”þþ
Source: NY Times
