Where’s minimum Bob? Where’s Mr. Chrysler?

The last time Chrysler was in dire straits, Lee Iacocca got personal and said Chrysler wanted to be your car company.
 
But now its minimum Bob Nardelli’s turn, and he’s no where to be found.
 
Today, Chrysler did a press show for the media headlined by Tom LaSorda.
 
You all remember LaSorda.
 
He is the President of Chrysler. He was the guy that had to find a way to deal with getting screwed by Daimler. He was the guy that engineered the turnaround plan that Cerberus loved, until they bought the company and brought in minimum Bob Nardelli to flip the corporation for a quick profit. He was the Chairman and CEO of the company.
 
Until Cerberus brought in minimum Bob, fresh off his losing performance (at least for the shareholders) at Home Depot.
 
And now LaSorda is too loyal to quit.
 
They demoted LaSorda. And, he took it. They made manufacturing – at which he’s an admitted genius - the only area of his control. Bit they didn’t give him the power to exploit that expertise to make better or more profitable cars. They just made him the top plant foreman.
 
Instead, for running the show, they bet on minimum Bob Nardelli. And on the credit markets and the greater fool theory.
 
The only thing worse than their pick for CEO was their timing. 
 
Listening to Tom LaSorda in the media conference, and to the generally obvious questions he was asked, the impression one got was of a man who was very, very sad. It wasn’t what he said. It was his tone. 
 
You got the sense that he’s someone who knows he’s being used, believes in keeping the commitments he made when he was in charge, and doesn’t know how to live with the reality that he can’t make good on them, that the company is a failure, and that he believes if he’d only done just a little more, it would have made a difference, it would have been enough.
 
Lot’s of us old folks hold to that theory. But, mostly, it’s because we’re control freaks trying to control the uncontrollable.
 
Chrysler has always been the uncontrollable.
 
LaSorda may have missed the chance to save it.
 
Or, he may have been deprived of the chance to save it.
 
But, the reality is that Chrysler has always depended on someone to save it, because it was always one car company too many.
 
The irony of it all is that the best chance Cerberus ever had for making money with its investment (after the initial stupidity of thinking that it knew more about cars than Daimler) was backing LaSorda. But Cerberus wasn’t interested in actually rescuing the company, only in making a quick profit. 
 
Henry Ford was wrong. History is not bunk. Those who do not know it are doomed, as they say, to repeat it.
 
Ask Henry Kaiser.
 
Or John Snow.
 
Whatever happens, though,
 
It’s not LaSorda’s fault.