克莱斯勒和菲亚特的命运二人转

    2007年在克莱斯勒公司（Chrysler）的发展史上留下了无法抹去的痕迹，背后有一个不为人知的原因：当年5月14日，戴姆勒克莱斯勒公司（DaimlerChrysler）宣布，将克莱斯勒集团（Chrysler Group）80.1%的股份作价74亿美元出售给赛伯乐资产管理公司（Cerberus Capital Management）。这等于是公开承认，它的跨国、跨文化并购以失败告终。当时，克莱斯勒的市值仅为1998年并购前1998年市值的一个零头，而且自并购后，它的状况便开始每况愈下。一年之后，雷曼兄弟（Lehman Brothers）宣告破产，在随之而来的经济危机中，政府被迫于2008、2009年向克莱斯勒公司注入巨额资金。但2009年8月30日，它还是宣告申请破产重组。

    这家公司差点就在手术台上宣告不治了。正如史蒂文•拉特纳在他的专著《全面整改》（Overhaul）中所述，政府派出的汽车业特别工作小组几乎每次开会都会为了如何处置克莱斯勒公司而来上一场辩论。获得了经济顾问的少数票支持后，有关该公司存亡的决策问题最终直接由白宫来拍板。而奥巴马总统决定，克莱斯勒公司应该获得救助。据拉特纳称，这个决策的理由是，“投资60亿美元让克莱斯勒重获生机要比投个几十亿美元直接葬送它要好得多”。经过了更多扣人心弦的激烈谈判后，美国政府最终决定将克莱斯勒20%的股份连同其运营控制权拱手交给菲亚特公司（Fiat），以换取菲亚特的技术和管理专长。

    菲亚特的技术对克莱斯勒来说到底贡献几何比较难以衡量，但菲亚特的管理对它产生的作用倒是毋庸置疑。2005年到2009年，克莱斯勒的销量从230万辆一路下滑到931,402辆，去年则大幅反弹回到了170万辆。在前任东家戴姆勒和赛伯乐的管理下，克莱斯勒始终无法获得投资，产品在业内毫无竞争力可言。首席执行官马尔乔内非常明智地懂得，如何能利用最少的资源将克莱斯勒的汽车和卡车最大限度地升级换代，并让克莱斯勒获得了长达37个月的持续增长。尽管它的轿车业务距离业内龙头还落后甚远，但在皮卡和运动型多功能车（SUV）上克莱斯勒现在已具备了充分的竞争力。

    换言之，多亏马尔乔内和菲亚特，克莱斯勒避免了被清算的厄运，保住了300,000个工作岗位，现在已经重新成为一家富有活力的公司——这让人更难以理解为什么现在合作双方非要争得不可开交，弄得底特律也不得安生。原因可能是，菲亚特一度拯救了克莱斯勒，而现在克莱斯勒却要开始拯救菲亚特了，这真让一些人抓狂。

    这个想法在2009年可能还显得很不靠谱，但今天却成了现实，而克莱斯勒并不是唯一一家正把欧洲汽车厂商拉出泥潭的美国公司。目前，欧宝（Opel）和福特欧洲（Ford of Europe）正分别靠通用汽车（General Motors）和福特汽车（Ford）北美分公司供养着。欧洲正深陷财政危机，加之人口老化，工会势力强硬，产能迟迟得不到削减，使强大如大众汽车（Volkswagen）这样的公司也陷入了混乱。

    The year 2007 resonates in Chrysler history for another reason: It was on May 14 that DaimlerChrysler publicly conceded the failure of its cross-ocean, cross-cultural merger by announcing the sale of 80.1% of the Chrysler Group to Cerberus Capital Management for $7.4 billion. At the time of the sale, Chrysler was worth only a fraction of its pre-merger 1998 price, and its fortunes only declined from there. Lehman Brothers went bankrupt a year later, and in the ensuing downturn the government was forced to pump billions of dollars into Chrysler in 2008 and 2009 before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on April 30, 2009.

    The company nearly died on the operating table. As Steven Rattner related in his book Overhaul, the question of what to do about Chrysler was debated at nearly every meeting of the government's auto task force. After a close vote among economic advisers, the decision about its survival went to the Oval Office, where President Obama decided that Chrysler should be saved. "It was better to invest $6 billion for a meaningful chance that Chrysler would survive than to invest several billion dollars in its funeral," was the rationale, according to Rattner. Further cliff-hanging negotiations were required before the government agreed to pass 20% of Chrysler along with operating control along to Fiat, in exchange for Fiat's technology and management expertise.

    Whatever contributions Fiat technology has made to Chrysler are hard to measure, but the impact of Fiat's management has been undeniable. Chrysler sales, which had fallen from 2.3 million in 2005 to only 931,402 in 2009, have rebounded smartly and reached 1.7 million last year. Under previous owners Daimler and Cerberus, Chrysler had been starved of investment and left with the weakest product line in the industry. CEO Sergio Marchionne smartly identified where he could most upgrade Chrysler's cars and trucks with the fewest resources and set Chrysler on its 37-month run. Though its passenger car lineup still lags the industry's best, Chrysler is now fully competitive in pickups and sport utility vehicles.

    In other words, instead of being liquidated at the cost of some 300,000 jobs, Chrysler is now a viable company, thanks to Marchionne and Fiat -- which makes it all the more difficult to comprehend the heat of the dispute now consuming Detroit. Where once Fiat rescued Chrysler, now Chrysler is in a position to rescue Fiat, and it drives some people nuts.

    That idea may have seemed far-fetched in 2009 but it is reality today, and Chrysler won't be the only company helping out a European carmaker. General Motors' (GM, Fortune 500) and Fords' (F, Fortune 500) North American operations are supporting Opel and Ford of Europe respectively. Europe's financial crisis combined with its aging demographic and the intransigence of labor unions in the face of overdue cuts in factory capacity have pushed even mighty Volkswagen into a tailspin.