Much has been made of the assertiveness shown by the board of General Motors Co. in critiquing the automaker's post-bankruptcy revitalization plan. In a Wall Street Journal piece Friday, the new chairman of GM crosstown rival Chrysler Group LLC
says his group has been just as willing to flex its muscle.
Chrysler chairman C. Robert Kidder in an interview says he spends an average of three days a week at Chrysler, scrutinizing plans by new CEO Sergio Marchionne, also head of Chrysler investor and partner Fiat SpA, adding that there have been some differences.
But as at GM, where the board questioned the wisdom of the automaker's sale of a majority of its Adam Opel GmbH unit but eventually signed off on the deal, there is little evidence that the board at Chrysler has significantly altered the company's direction. The story tells of a Sept. 25 board meeting whether directors tabled a vote on Marchionne's recovery plan instead of green lighting it. The plan was eventually approved on Oct. 1.
Still, any amount of critical thinking by the automaker boards would apparently be an improvement over the recent past. Steven Rattner, who led the White House automotive task force in overseeing the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler,
in a Fortune piece out this week said he "was shocked by the stunningly poor management that we found" inside the Detroit companies. -
Lou Whiteman
Lou Whiteman is a senior writer covering the automotive, transportation and industrial sectors. Follow him on Twitter @louwhiteman
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