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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) – In 2009, in his first speech to Chrysler employees, Sergio Marchionne invoked the Zulu "Sawubona" greeting.
That means "I see you" and the traditional answer is "sikona," or "I'm here."
"The sequence of the exchange is important," said Marchionne. "Until you're seen, you do not exist, I can only tell you that I see you, I'm glad you're here."
They were happy that It's there too.
Chrysler employees suffered several months of crisis that culminated in a government-controlled bankruptcy.
The speech was quoted in a book written by Steven Rattner, who worked with Marchionne to save Chrysler. The words surely meant the world to its beleaguered workers, who had suffered during months of crisis that ended in bankruptcy controlled by the government.
No other automobile executive would have appeared that way. But then, few others could have done what he did. Marchionne, who died Wednesday at the age of 66, was an industry outsider who rescued not one, but two car companies.
Marchionne became Fiat's CEO in 2004, his entry into the auto industry.
He quickly reversed a series of quarterly losses at the Italian automaker, and reintroduced the tiny Fiat 500, a model that now sets the brand on a global scale.
After the financial crisis of 2008, Chrysler's competitiveness had suffered through the years of its merger with the owner of Mercedes-Benz Daimler and subsequent possession by Cerberus Capital. Management
During these years, the quality of Chrysler's new products has deteriorated to the point that some were not competitively remote. Marchionne himself would later call the Dodge Caliber "an abomination".
When the US economy collapsed, Chrysler needed help to survive, and Fiat seemed to be an ideal partner.
Fiat wanted to enter the US market, and Chrysler needed good little cars. Marchionne was also the good man.
He resurrected both Fiat and Chrysler by never thinking of himself as an insider.
Most CEOs of the auto industry wear a suit and tie, which requires caution when selecting and maintaining them. As CEO, Marchionne still wore black sweaters. The sweaters are easy to maintain and easy to pack, and no decision making is needed just to get dressed for the job. It does not matter that no other automotive executive dresses that way. He did what made sense.
He took the same turn with the companies he was directing.
He was lucid and frank. Often, brutally.
After taking over Chrysler, he quickly announced a new management team, and a few months later, two of his senior executives left the company while Marchionne reorganized things further.
In Marchionne's unusual management structure, some people were given multiple roles. Ralph Gilles, for example, was originally both CEO of the Dodge brand and head of product design for Chrysler's entire company. Fred Diaz has been named CEO of the new Ram Truck brand and marketing manager for the entire company. (Gilles is now head of design for Fiat Chrysler, Diaz left the company and is now CEO of Mitsubishi North America.)
In media matters, he was expecting a discipline from the from those who worked for him. exhibited refreshing little of itself. A press conference with Marchionne was always an interesting and entertaining event.
He freely criticized the products and performance of his own company in public forums. He once admitted that the launch of the Dodge Dart, a car designed under his direction, did not go well. The car was not originally offered with the engines and transmissions that the Americans would have preferred, he said. In the long run, the Dart was pulled off the market because, as it turned out, the Americans were largely diverted from small cars.
While other captains of the auto industry touted their enthusiasm for electric cars, Marchionne admitted that they were expensive to make and that there was, at the time At present, there is little market for them.
In 2013, he complained openly that Fiat was losing money on the Fiat 500e, an electric machine that California rules required it to sell.
When journalists wondered what would become of Fiat Chrysler without Marchionne, he expressed his confidence. "I think leadership will be good leadership and that's all that matters," he told the Detroit Auto Show in January.
He does not give up the control of the company that he helped to build on the way, or at the time, that he had planned. But at least he was able to leave things in his hands that he helped to choose.
– Peter Valdes-Dapena covers the CNNMoney automobile industry for 18 years
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