Thanks to him, Fiat did not go bankrupt

After becoming the boss of Fiat Group, Italy's largest private employer, in 2004, Sergio Marchionne usually wore a dark blue or black sweater. He wanted to show that he was different. Half Canadian, his spurs as a leader of a company acquired in Switzerland, with little patience for Italian sensibilities and rituals.

This sweater remains its hallmark, even after the merger in 2009 between Fiat and Chrysler. operated as the boss of the seventh automaker in the world. "I do not have time to make a tie," was his pleasant answer to questions about his clothes. The sweater and checked shirts emphasized the break in Italy with the economic and financial kongsi in which Fiat played a central role for a long time.

Marchionne is praised because he's managed to make a lot of predictions in a thriving business of two struggling automakers, Fiat and Chrysler. His qualities: simple, clear, focused, hard as he thought necessary, sometimes empathic and full of attention for "his" people. Friend and foe have always regarded Marchionne as a class apart. Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche called him a "real giant" on Wednesday.

His work ethic is legendary, and he has also demanded much from others. When, in his early days at Fiat, he noticed that a whole line of people was meeting when the door of the company canteen opened: "How long did they wait there?"

The nose on the facts

its visionary qualities and creativity – even though China and the electric car are weak points of Fiat Chrysler (FCA). In Italy, where parliament held a minute of silence when news of his death was announced Wednesday, something else is added. He pushed the country to the facts. Globalization requires a different way of working.

This brought Marchionne to difficult interventions. He removed a whole series of management layers within Fiat. He has also entered a tough battle with the unions. They did not easily win. In 2007, he sighed at the Geneva Motor Show: "We can not do anything. We are generals prisoners of our army. But a few years later, Fiat employees opted for the Marchionne vision against union advice: less good working conditions, a lot of automation, but no forced layoffs.

It is important that Marchionne has opened most factories in Italy – in southern Italy Melfi, the Jeep is being manufactured, with more than 1.5 million cars, the most model successful FCA. "We had our differences, but together we faced the lazy little Italy who prefers to close the factories rather than roll up the sleeves," said ICFTU union leader Marco Bentivogli. A left-wing union, CGIL, hailed Marchionne for "saving a dying company."

"Marchionne wrote an important page on the history of Italian industry," said President Mattarella. "He showed the world the capabilities and creativity" of the Italian industry.

When Marchionne took the lead in 2004, the Fiat group was in the red. "We are losing two million euros a day," he told reporters. Marchionne maintained a great cleaning within the company and put his cards on a new version of the legendary Fiat 500, from 1957. "This is our iPod," said Marchionne when the new Cinquecento was introduced in 2007. The car has proved to be a great success, Fiat has come out of the red numbers.

Too Small

Marchionne realized that Fiat was too small to survive alone. Already in 2005, he reached an agreement with General Motors, in which he was particularly interested in Opel. This collaborative plan failed. "I am convinced that she did not want to give me Opel because I am Italian," he said later. But he left two billion dollars when GM broke the contract.

His master's degree was in 2009. In the United States, Chrysler was on the brink of bankruptcy. After long and arduous discussions with US federations and the US government, Marchionne managed to get Fiat 20% stake in Chrysler in exchange for Fiat's technical knowledge. Fiat received a majority two years later.

You should not be afraid to think big, he said shortly after La ​​Repubblica. "For a series of historical and cultural reasons, Europeans have been conditioned in the past.The idea that closing something new to be born inspires our fear."

Shareholders were pleased with the rationalization of the new concern. In 2011, he made the agricultural machine and independent excavation, followed four years later by Ferrari. And during one of his last appearances in public, in June, he had even made a badger by exception, he was so happy to report that the Fiat Chrysler group was indebted.

Last month he was also in Rome. carabinieri to offer a new Jeep. Marchionne joined this. He is the son of a rifleman who emigrated to Canada at the age of fourteen. In the Corps of Carabineers, I recognize "the same values ​​that underlie my own education: seriousness, honesty, sense of duty, discipline and service," said Marchionne.

Shortly after, he went to a clinic in Zurich for an intervention on his shoulders. Marchionne, a chain smoker, should be away for a few days. But after the operation, there were problems that worsened in the middle of last week. Wednesday morning, it became known that Marchionne died at the age of 66 years.

Shortly after, the FCA publishes the quarterly figures, as agreed. They were disappointing: a 35% drop in profits, from 1.15 billion euros to 754 billion euros. The profit forecast for the whole of 2018 has been adjusted from 8.7 billion euros to 8 billion euros; the profit is 85% in North America. At the Milan show, FCA dropped by 10%. The "giant" Marchionne is already missed.