The English he imposed on all executives of Fiat 2

The hardest remains to be done for Sergio Marchionne. After a breathtaking 2009 year, marked by the takeover of the American Chrysler and the attempt failed on Opel, the boss of Fiat is expected at the turn on the publication, today, the annual results of the firm which he heads for almost six years. It must be said that the Martian, as call its detractors, drawn from pushing the good old transalpine capitalism. His latest releases at the Detroit auto show, have caused serious waves. Pointing the underperformance of Alfa Romeo, he implicitly suggested that Fiat might sell the brand to the snake. Outraged, the Director of the magazine "Quattroruote" ("four wheels"), Mauro Tedeschini, is is immediately its split a letter open teeth in "corriere della Sera": "Marchionne believes that the future of Fiat through the relocation of production in the United States and, during this time there, leaders of Renault are summoned to the Elysee Palace to have intended to transfer the mounting of the Clio in Turkey. I ask the question: Fiat interests coincide still with those of the Italy "Sergio Marchionne, always from Detroit, has also confirmed the closure of the Termini Imerese plant in Sicily. Given the very high costs of transport by boat and notorious overcapacity in the auto industry, it would be "madness" to continue to produce cars, he said. And then, "this is not to Fiat" to resolve the social problems of the Italy, he added. Immediate response of Giuseppe Berta in the Genoa daily, "Il secolo xix": "this kind of brutal discourse is regarded in America as a sign of determination, but it goes against the role of Fiat in Italy for more than a century," wrote in its editorial this Professor of contemporary history at Bocconi University in Milan. Indeed, he says in "Echos", while Marchionne took these words across the Atlantic, "the Agnelli, aware of their responsibility, negotiated with the Berlusconi Government to limit the destruction of jobs in Sicily".

Under the spell of the Marchionne

Should infer that nothing wrong between the pattern of Fiat and its shareholder of reference "Marchionne is an original man but the Agnelli are very happy." John Elkann, their representative, has a high esteem for him. "The two men have an excellent relationship," relativizes Ernesto Auci, in charge of institutional relations of Fiat, in Rome. Obviously, the Agnelli family is still under the charm of a manager who allowed him to raise his head.

It is February 14, 2005 he won the last débouclant the alliance tied five years earlier between Fiat and General Motors. In 2000, to acquire an international dimension, the Agnelli had indeed sold 20 percent of Fiat Auto to GM, as well as an option on the remaining 80, in exchange for 5 of the capital of the American group. But this partnership turned short: when the Italians, for money, have launched a capital increase. GM is in great difficulty, chose to throw the sponge and pay $ 1.5 billion to the Turin constructor for any account balance. Subsequently, Marchionne won a loan of EUR 3 billion from the major banks of Italy out Fiat of the rut. And six months later, he persuaded the Agnelli to turn to the pot to retain control of the firm. "If the family was left dilute, Fiat would be passed into the hands of banks, would have followed a more financial logic that industrial and ran the risk of a dismemberment." "We must acknowledge that having a stable ownership then allowed Marchionne to resume the road of development", said Ernesto Auci. Crazy steps, the Managing Director of Fiat repeat forever: "I am not the good Samaritan, I'm here to create the value for the benefit of the shareholders."

One thing is certain: when he arrived in June 2004, Fiat was incompetent. The company was 1.6 billion euros of losses and buried under a debt of EUR 14 billion. In 2009, it could have reached more than 1 billion euros of operating margin. In these circumstances, it includes only its President, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, as his Vice President, John Elkann, the leave act as it sees fit. At the monthly meetings of the General Executive Council (GEC), the Holy of Holies, John Elkann "informs everything and look at the accounts, said a member of this forum, but it does not operational". "". "Waiting to see whether Marchionne will succeed the bet completely crazy to drive the Americans in Fiat 500, which is not won with giants like Toyota and Volkswagen, have other more important financial means", said a former top leader of group. In theory, the strategic choices are arrested in the majority, if not by consensus. But Marchionne said "no", only against all, if not paramount. As the Board of Directors, where only 3 members on 16 owned by the Agnelli family, it follows without barguigner.

Elkann, a very clear "heir"

In this context, many lament the inexperience of John Elkann. His biographers have beautiful remind that he is a graduate of the Ecole polytechnique in Turin, he did an internship at General Electric and worked two years on the Assembly line of the Fiat 500 in the Poland, then in subsidiary équipementière Magneti Marelli in Ireland, "the heir" remains very clear. In truth, his parachute still across the gorge of the nostalgic for the era, which are more and more cumbersome Marchionne. At its discharge, that the Agnelli called Jaki found himself propelled in Fiat from the age of twenty-two years, late 1997, the single will of his grandfather, Gianni. "I was appointed heir because I was the eldest of his eight grandchildren", he says. "Let us not forget that up to forty years, Gianni was the play-boy on the Côte d'Azur and has never, nor him, led to industrial case, said a friend of the family, it is really in the continuity." Shy - arrogant, say his enemies-, John, who was born in New York, is "suspicious" and "tough", according to Marco Ferrante, Director Assistant of the daily "reformista" and author of two recent books on the subject (1). It derives its legitimacy from the 50 of shares that it owns in Dicembre society, alongside his brother Lapo and his sister Ginevra. A participation which allows him to control 34 of the company Giovanni Agnelli & C., which control in turn, via the family holding Exor, 30 percent of Fiat partnership. If the meaning of the family, it is because his grandfather much handled him and at the death of the Avvocato, Gianluigi Gabetti, financial advisor to the Agnelli since the night of the time, took the relay and played the guardians with determination. "Every year that passes reinforces the powers of Jaki because its position to the capital takes the value with the Fiat turnaround," said Marco Ferrante. It is all the more so that the rest of the family is inexorably, diluted as and extent that are the children of the fifth generation: the descendants of the Senator Giovanni Agnelli are today more than one hundred and fifty!

Sergio Marchionne, who has not known the Avvocato, for its part embodies the globalised world. The English he imposed on all executives of Fiat (2). Party join at the age of fourteen years his parents to Toronto, he began working at the Canada, before joining the Switzerland where he led the Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS).

The Anglo-Saxon management

This is that he was spotted by Umberto Agnelli, brother of Gianni, to put an end to a series of managerial failures. "Since the crisis of succession opened by the disappearance a year apart, Gianni and Umberto, Fiat works Anglo-Saxon", said Giovanni Fiori, Professor of "corporate governance" at the Luiss in Rome University, in which the main weakness of John Elkann is its lack of political network. "In his time, Cesare Romiti was a manager from the outside, it could not do anything without the agreement of Gianni, whose address book was the greatest strength." It changed its time. Now there are more great head and Marchionne has not really interlocutor in the Agnelli. "In any case reminds Ruy Brandolini d'Adda, nephew of Gianni,"the President of Fiat, is Montezemolo, cannot therefore be said that Fiat is driven by the tandem Marchionne-Elkann, is more complicated than that. " Similarly, the holding Exor, chaired by John, is led by an anglophone who almost always lived off Italy, Carlo Barel di Sant'Albano. Is family capitalism in Italian now open to the outside world, as the Benetton or the Marcegaglia This would probably go a little faster to work... According a study published in December by cabinet SpencerStuart, boards of Directors of the Italian companies listed are that 56 of managers, in the sense the term Marchionne, against 84 percent in the United States.

The genealogy of the Agnelli on lesechos.fr/documents