Attention: TDR Forum Junkies Please excuse this long post, but I read this story in the Detroit News 10-31-2000.
Schrempp: DaimlerChrysler no merger of equals
By Daniel Howes / The Detroit News
Frankfurt ,Germany -- You know history is being rewritten when the boss says today's mess always was part of yesterday's plan.
Now we have Daimler Chrysler AG Chairman Jurgen Schrempp confirming that his "merger of equals" with Chrysler Corp. never was intended to be any such thing. Chrysler as it turns out, always was to become the North American business unit of a reformed and renamed Daimler-Benz AG, answerable to Stuttgart.
"me being a chess player, I don't normally talk about the second or third move," Schrempp said in an interview published in Mondays Financial Times of London and confirmed by a DaimlerChrysler spokeswoman. "The structure we have nowwith Chrysler, was always the structure I wanted. "
"We had to go a round-about way, but it had to be done for psychological reasons. If I had gone and said Chrysler would be a division, everybody on thier side would have said: 'there is no way we'll do a deal. ' But it's precisely what I wanted to do. "
It takes alot of guts-- and a perplexing lack of tact--to admit that you deceived 125,000 future employees to get a deal done. Such an admission is even more surprising considering that those employees are being asked by Schrempp and Auburn Hills-based President James P. Holden to make sacrifices to return Chrysler to profitability.
Schrempp's comments may not inspire much loyalty in Auburn Hills because they shouldn't. The German owners of Chrysler continue to show an appalling lack of understanding for the symbolism of their actions. They also fail to appreciate the respect Americans have for executives who tell the truth in the beginning -- not more than two years later.
Chryslers troubles -- illustrated most recently by last weeks $512 - million third-quarter operating loss, plans to idle seven plants to reduce excess inventory and an expected slowdown in October sales -- underscore the challenges facing Holden and his people. Yet Schrempp and his management board, in a stunning display of ham-handedness, are pressing ahead with a $5-million plan to renovate some three flors of New York's Chrysler Building.
Of course $5-million is not much money for a $151-billion global company like DiamlerChrysler. But the management board just spent another $5-million to renovate old Daimler-Benz treasury offices in the Seagrams Building to accommodate the management board's bi-monthly meetings. Now word is that DaimlerChrysler wlii keep both offices and push to make Manhattan the "virtual headquarters," meaning many key policy decisions will be made far from legal headquarters in Stuttgart and Auburn Hills, MI.
It's not the money, stupid, it's the symbolism. Last week, Holden said he would "not entirely preclude anything" in the acelerating austerity campaign -- including layoffs -- even as the management board is planning new Chrysler Building digs that include renovatios of Walter P. Chrysler's elite Cloud Club.
Holden is setting the right tone, but his boss isn't. While analysts continue to downgrade their outlooks for DaimlerChrysler, based on far more than the deteriorating Chrysler business, Schrempp continues to tout a stratagy that has failed to deliver any big bangs with investors. Shares in DaimlerChrysler have lost more that $60 billion in value since their high of $108 in January 1999. Was that part of the plan too?
Contact Daniel Howes, Germany Bureau chief of The Detroit News, at :
dchowes@detnews.com
Sorry again for the long post, but if this keeps up we may all be driving something else. .
------------------
2000 QC SHORT BED 4X4, 24 VALVE W/ 275 HP INJECTORS, 3. 54 GEARS W/ POSI, AUTO, BLACK WITH EVERYTHING EXCEPT LEATHER,285/75R16 KELLY SAFARI AWR, RAIDER NOMAD CAB HIGH CAP,FACTORY RAZ STEREO W/ STEERING WHEEL CONTROLS, KENWOOD 848 AMP, KENWOOD EXCELON 6X9 IN DOORS AND KENWOOD EXCELON 6IN. ROUND DUAL-MAGS IN REAR DOORS, MTX FACTORY FIT BOX W/ 2-10"SUBS UNDER REAR SEAT
ORDERED: 2001 ARCTIC CAT ZR800 TWIN LE BLACK...
Schrempp: DaimlerChrysler no merger of equals
By Daniel Howes / The Detroit News
Frankfurt ,Germany -- You know history is being rewritten when the boss says today's mess always was part of yesterday's plan.
Now we have Daimler Chrysler AG Chairman Jurgen Schrempp confirming that his "merger of equals" with Chrysler Corp. never was intended to be any such thing. Chrysler as it turns out, always was to become the North American business unit of a reformed and renamed Daimler-Benz AG, answerable to Stuttgart.
"me being a chess player, I don't normally talk about the second or third move," Schrempp said in an interview published in Mondays Financial Times of London and confirmed by a DaimlerChrysler spokeswoman. "The structure we have nowwith Chrysler, was always the structure I wanted. "
"We had to go a round-about way, but it had to be done for psychological reasons. If I had gone and said Chrysler would be a division, everybody on thier side would have said: 'there is no way we'll do a deal. ' But it's precisely what I wanted to do. "
It takes alot of guts-- and a perplexing lack of tact--to admit that you deceived 125,000 future employees to get a deal done. Such an admission is even more surprising considering that those employees are being asked by Schrempp and Auburn Hills-based President James P. Holden to make sacrifices to return Chrysler to profitability.
Schrempp's comments may not inspire much loyalty in Auburn Hills because they shouldn't. The German owners of Chrysler continue to show an appalling lack of understanding for the symbolism of their actions. They also fail to appreciate the respect Americans have for executives who tell the truth in the beginning -- not more than two years later.
Chryslers troubles -- illustrated most recently by last weeks $512 - million third-quarter operating loss, plans to idle seven plants to reduce excess inventory and an expected slowdown in October sales -- underscore the challenges facing Holden and his people. Yet Schrempp and his management board, in a stunning display of ham-handedness, are pressing ahead with a $5-million plan to renovate some three flors of New York's Chrysler Building.
Of course $5-million is not much money for a $151-billion global company like DiamlerChrysler. But the management board just spent another $5-million to renovate old Daimler-Benz treasury offices in the Seagrams Building to accommodate the management board's bi-monthly meetings. Now word is that DaimlerChrysler wlii keep both offices and push to make Manhattan the "virtual headquarters," meaning many key policy decisions will be made far from legal headquarters in Stuttgart and Auburn Hills, MI.
It's not the money, stupid, it's the symbolism. Last week, Holden said he would "not entirely preclude anything" in the acelerating austerity campaign -- including layoffs -- even as the management board is planning new Chrysler Building digs that include renovatios of Walter P. Chrysler's elite Cloud Club.
Holden is setting the right tone, but his boss isn't. While analysts continue to downgrade their outlooks for DaimlerChrysler, based on far more than the deteriorating Chrysler business, Schrempp continues to tout a stratagy that has failed to deliver any big bangs with investors. Shares in DaimlerChrysler have lost more that $60 billion in value since their high of $108 in January 1999. Was that part of the plan too?
Contact Daniel Howes, Germany Bureau chief of The Detroit News, at :
dchowes@detnews.com
Sorry again for the long post, but if this keeps up we may all be driving something else. .
------------------
2000 QC SHORT BED 4X4, 24 VALVE W/ 275 HP INJECTORS, 3. 54 GEARS W/ POSI, AUTO, BLACK WITH EVERYTHING EXCEPT LEATHER,285/75R16 KELLY SAFARI AWR, RAIDER NOMAD CAB HIGH CAP,FACTORY RAZ STEREO W/ STEERING WHEEL CONTROLS, KENWOOD 848 AMP, KENWOOD EXCELON 6X9 IN DOORS AND KENWOOD EXCELON 6IN. ROUND DUAL-MAGS IN REAR DOORS, MTX FACTORY FIT BOX W/ 2-10"SUBS UNDER REAR SEAT
ORDERED: 2001 ARCTIC CAT ZR800 TWIN LE BLACK...
