The legacy of Sergio Marchionne The 14 years at the head of the FCA

The most difficult day of Fiat-Chrysler. That in these 14 years, since Sergio Marchionne took the helm, he completely changed his skin. The Marchionne era coincides with a deep restructuring of the group. He was nicknamed the Fiat CEO of the time in 2004, a few days after the death of Umberto Agnelli, the first to believe so much in him to co-opt him to the board of directors. A Lingotto who was on the verge of bankruptcy with a debt of conversion, granted by the creditor banks, which later proved decisive. A loan that, without an immediate change of course for a company that has lost more than two million euros a day, would have delivered Fiat to the banks. This did not happen.

But before telling his extraordinary story it is better to take a step back and tell the beginnings, which best describe the man and therefore the character. Marchionne was born in the province of Chieti in Abruzzo in 1952. His father, marshal of the Carabineros, had moved to Canada after his retirement to start a new life. The Dalmatian mother (Maria Zuccon). He takes three degrees (philosophy, economics, law) plus a master's degree in business administration. Becoming a chartered accountant since 1985 and attorney and attorney (in the Ontario region) since 1987. In 2011, he described his debut as described by a brilliant biography of journalist Giorgio Dell & Arti: I started my university in Canada, I chose philosophy. I did it just because I felt that at that time it was important to me. Then I went on to study something else and I first did the accountant and then the lawyer. And I followed many other paths, going through finance, before I started packaging, then aluminum, chemistry, biotechnology, services and cars. aujourd & # 39; hui. I do not know if philosophy has made me a better lawyer or a better CEO. But he opened my eyes, opened my mind to something else.

In 2002, he moved to SGS a colossal certification system that sees the Agnelli family as the majority shareholder and that Marchionne builds a network of relationships that counts in Switzerland. Two years later, he was named CEO. Marchionne, dressed in a jacket and tie as it almost never arrived, is presented to the press with the new top of the Fiat Group: President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo and the Vice President John Elkann, then twenty-eight years old. The first words you said that day were: Fiat can do it; the concept of the team is the foundation on which the new organization will be created; I promise that he will work hard, without controversy and without political interests. He started working hard right away, even on weekends in a Mirafiori often deserted. I remember the first 60 days after my arrival here in 2004: I visited all the establishments and then, when I came back to Turin, Saturday and Sunday I went to Mirafiori, without anyone, to see the showers, the cloakrooms, the cafeteria, I stop. I've changed everything: how can I apply for a quality product to the workers and make them live in a degraded establishment? ", He said in 2011 to the then Director of the Republic, Ezio Mauro.

The unanimous opinion of critics that Marchionne shares three main points: the waiver of the Agnellis to exercise the put option to General Motors, which had cashed the Lingotto 1.55 billion; the converted, in fact, signed with the main Italian credit institutions; the controversial Ifil Exor exchange that allows the Turin dynasty to keep control of Fiat. In the following years, thanks to the excellent sales performance in the European market and the boom in Brazilian registrations (where Lingotto was market leader), Fiat in the second half of the 2000-2010 decade showed a significant recovery in terms of profitability and budget results

With these data, the turning point came : the acquisition of the American Chrysler failed in the crisis of 2008 when the states United States (and the world) ended up being the other way around. In December of the same year, the manager stated that the sector is consolidating steadily and that to resist competition, it would have been necessary to increase its size. Only groups that succeed in producing 6 million cars a year will be able to withstand the future, prophesy. That was the signal the coup that the manager was preparing: on January 20, 2009, Fiat announced an agreement with the newly-established Obama administration, to enter the capital of Chrysler. Initially with 20% of the shares after the resistance of the American unions and a complicated negotiation with the government. The sixth group of cars in the world is born.

In the first quarter of 2011, Chrysler returned to profit and, in May 2011, after refinancing debt and repayment with loans from the US and Canadian governments, Fiat increased its interest in Chrysler to 46%. In July 2011, with the acquisition of investments in Chrysler of Canada and the US Treasury Department, it reached 53.5%, to 58.5% in 2012. January 1, 2014 , the Fiat group has entered the Chrysler acquisition. remaining at 41.5% of the fund Veba (owned by the union Uaw Metalworking), raising 100%, settling for an expense of 3.65 billion dollars: 1.75 cash payments and the rest in a maximum dividend of which Fiat will transfer to Veba the participation of 58.5%.

The other foreign lot was the acquisition of Opel a German automobile company of the General Motors Group. After long and difficult negotiations, it seems that the "Opel match" was won by the giant Magna International. But even Magna will not get to acquire Opel as a surprise General Motors, with the support of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, decides to stay inside Opel and revive the brand and the production sacrificing even a factory. [19659005] In Italy, Marchionne radically changes industrial relations . The real breakthrough occurred a few years earlier, in April 2010, when Fiat terminated the national contract and then left Confindustria by striking a blow to the Avenue's badociation. Astronomy, and asked a series of concessions to the unions as a condition to Pomigliano in the production of the new Panda. Most unions agree to the deal, while Fiom is against it and will stay that way until the end by opening a dispute that still lingers in court. In two successive referendums, first in Pomigliano and then in Mirafiori, the workers declared themselves to be in agreement with a large majority.

In 2014, he took the helm of Ferrari led by Montezemolo for more than 20 years. It's an unexpected turn, not without a tough fight between the two that ends with the exclusion of the top manager who had revived the mark leading to victory in the Formula One championship in 2000. The prelude to the list of Ferrari in the United States. But on the stock market there is a minority share, 10%, of the House of Maranello, because 80% remain to the shareholders of Exor, the holding of Agnelli including the non-executive vice president, and the 10% Remaining to Piero Ferrari, son of Enzo. Among his most famous phrases: Leadership not anarchy. In a large company that only orders. Collective culpability, shared responsibility, does not exist. I feel alone several times. Or: The Italian language is too complex and slow: for a concept that in English is explained in two words, in Italian it takes at least six