Behold the power of denial.
Chrysler’s Chief Says He Believes He Has Saved the Automaker
By BILL VLASIC
DETROIT — He is the first chief executive in decades to lead a major car company into bankruptcy, but Robert L. Nardelli hardly considers himself a failure.
Instead, Mr. Nardelli was holding his head high Thursday for helping keep Chrysler in business — bankruptcy or not.
“It’s not the fate I would have chosen, but it has allowed us to save the company,” Mr. Nardelli said in an interview. “I think the cup is half full, and not half empty.”
His efforts were recognized Thursday by President Obama, who singled out Mr. Nardelli in his remarks for his “positive and constructive role” in getting deals with the Italian automaker Fiat, the United Automobile Workers and Chrysler’s largest lenders that will be integral to a successful restructuring in bankruptcy court.
Once Chrysler emerges from Chapter 11, Mr. Nardelli, 60, will leave the company as it transitions to new management selected by a reconstituted board.
It was his decision to leave at that point, he said. “I got us here,” he said. “And I feel good about getting us here.”
Still, Chrysler’s trip into bankruptcy was hardly the comeback that Mr. Nardelli envisioned when he was hired by Cerberus Capital Management to run the automaker in August 2007.
Mr. Nardelli came to Detroit with a reputation as an autocratic executive who had clashed with shareholders and directors at his previous company, Home Depot.
He methodically tried to change that perception at Chrysler, where his long days of work and disciplined approach to business decisions won over many skeptical employees and industry experts.
A year ago, the privately held Chrysler was flush with cash and leaner than at any time in its history after rounds of job reductions, plant closings and production cuts.
Mr. Nardelli said he believed that Chrysler was poised for a renaissance — until the slumping United States economy dragged new-car sales into the ditch.
By last fall, Chrysler was spending billions of dollars in cash reserves and running dangerously close to insolvency. Only a $4 billion federal loan kept the company from shutting its doors months ago.
When he joined his fellow chief executives from General Motors and the Ford Motor Company last November to seek government aid for the industry, Mr. Nardelli was set against taking Chrysler into bankruptcy.
Even during marathon negotiations in recent days with Chrysler’s unions and banks, he held out hope that bankruptcy could be avoided.
“I’m disappointed that we couldn’t get all of the lenders to agree,” he said. “Filing for Chapter 11 was obviously not my preference.”
He says he sees a bright future for Chrysler in its alliance with Fiat, which can provide small cars and fuel-efficient engine technology that Chrysler sorely lacks.
Once out of bankruptcy, Chrysler will have a new board of nine members — the government will select six and Fiat will choose three.
That board will select a chief executive for Chrysler. While Mr. Nardelli said he was never told he could not compete for the job, he felt it was “the right time to transition” to a new chief executive, possibly Fiat’s leader, Sergio Marchionne.
“I tend to be proactive,” Mr. Nardelli said. “I felt, let’s get past this issue and get it off the table and behind us.”
Thomas LaSorda, a vice chairman who was Mr. Nardelli’s immediate predecessor as chief executive, will also be leaving Chrysler. Mr. LaSorda, 54, said Thursday that he planned to retire, but had not set a date. Another vice chairman, James Press, did not make his future plans known during a conference call with reporters.
In his relatively short time at the top of Chrysler, Mr. Nardelli did fulfill much of the agenda laid out for him by Cerberus. He streamlined the company and significantly lowered its costs, although tens of thousands of jobs were eliminated in the process.
He said he would go back to Cerberus as an adviser, and then evaluate other opportunities.
Yet wherever he ends up, Mr. Nardelli’s business career will be defined, in part, by Chrysler’s trip into bankruptcy.
It has been an emotionally charged experience, particularly Thursday morning when he flew back to Detroit from Washington to be at Chrysler headquarters in time to watch Mr. Obama’s speech.
“I wanted to be here with our people to provide some confidence and assurances about the future,” he said.
