| Subject: |
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...and allowing Employees to share in the outcome... |
| Name: |
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MoparNorm |
| Date Posted: |
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Oct 30, 07 - 2:05 AM |
| IP Address: |
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71.119.187.197 |
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moparnorm@hotmail.com |
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http://stores.ebay.com/All-Kinds-of-Surplus_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ0QQftidZ1QQpZ2QQtZkm |
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From the Detroit, Free Press
Nardelli eyes worker stock options
October 30, 2007
BY JEWEL GOPWANI
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Chrysler LLC Chairman and CEO Bob Nardelli said he wants to introduce a stock-option program at Chrysler that would go beyond the automaker's top executives.
"We're talking about hundreds of individuals that will participate in our success as we go forward," he said. "And we will be successful."
Exactly how a privately held Chrysler would structure that incentive program is unclear. But the concept goes beyond typical options programs normally reserved for a company's top officers, analysts say.
"What they really need right now is the commitment of the entire workforce," said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research.
Chrysler needs that commitment as it considers cuts to its product line, eliminates thousands of salaried jobs and implements a new UAW contract -- all parts of another crucial transformation in the company's history.
The company needs its top managers to buy in to Chrysler's turnaround, not just for the company's current health, but for whatever might be its next phase: possibly another sale, a partnership or a public stock offering.
"You have everyone rowing in one direction," said Sheldon Stone, managing director of Amherst Partners LLC, an investment banking and turnaround firm in Birmingham.
Analysts hailed such an incentive package for workers as another bold step by Detroit's newest automotive CEO -- one that could rally senior managers into the future.
"You've got to incent them to take some action and make decisions," said Phil Biggs, executive vice president with Grand Rapids-based automotive consulting firm IRN Inc. "It's a good sign."
Already in his first 100 days, Nardelli has shaken up Chrysler's executive ranks, recruiting Toyota Motor Corp. executive Jim Press as a vice chairman. On Monday, Nardelli brought on John Cataldo from GE to guide Chrysler in mergers and acquisitions.
Nardelli also said Monday that Chrysler is in the process of selling $1 billion of land to help the company generate cash.
Among the buildings and parcels on the block are Chrysler's Sterling Heights Vehicle Test Center, an old van plant in Windsor and its former foundry in Detroit.
The industry, "has an insatiable appetite for cash," said Nardelli on Monday during an interview with Dennis Kneale, former managing editor at Forbes, at a conference of the Magazine Publishers Association in Florida. The interview was shown on the association's Web site.
The conference marked only the third public appearance since Nardelli joined Chrysler in early August, days after Cerberus Capital Management wrapped up the deal to buy a controlling 80.1% stake in Chrysler from what is now Daimler AG.
It was also Nardelli's first public appearance since UAW-represented workers narrowly approved a 4-year national contract over the weekend. The contract introduces a two-tier wage system and shifts Chrysler's retiree health care obligation to a union-run trust.
Nardelli applauded the negotiators and acknowledged that there was some "uneasiness with change" among workers.
"I'm really glad it's behind us, so we can focus now on a forward basis," he said.
In the shorter term, Nardelli said the company's inventory at the end of this year will be 100,000 units lower than last year. At the end of September, the automaker said it had trimmed its inventory by 84,000 vehicles. |
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