Toyota’s Top U.S. Executive Is Joining Chrysler

September 7, 2007
Toyota’s Top U.S. Executive Is Joining Chrysler
By MICHELINE MAYNARD

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Sept. 6 — For a generation, waves of Detroit auto executives have been defecting to foreign rivals.

On Thursday, the tide took a surprising turn, with Toyota’s highest-ranking American executive, James E. Press, being named co-president at Chrysler.

It is the second high-profile hire in short order by Cerberus Capital Management, which acquired Chrysler this summer. Earlier it hired Robert L. Nardelli, the former chief executive of Home Depot and a man with no automotive experience, to be Chrysler’s new chief executive.

The hiring of Mr. Press — the president of Toyota North America, who has four decades of experience in the auto business — was hailed as “a major coup” by no less than Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Automobile Workers union.

Chrysler now has a top management team that is arguably the equal of those at General Motors, led by an industry veteran, Rick Wagoner, and the Ford Motor Company, which captured headlines last year when it brought in Alan R. Mulally from the Boeing Company.

In hiring Mr. Press, Chrysler’s private owners are showing clear signs that they plan to follow through on their vow to try to revive it, counter to Mr. Gettelfinger’s warning this year that the new owners would probably “strip and flip” Chrysler. However, he has since come to endorse the new owners.

Mr. Press is betting his reputation that he can carry out a turnaround at Chrysler, which lost $1.5 billion in 2006 and has lost more money this year, although Cerberus does not say how much.

His departure from Toyota, where he was the only American on its corporate board, and its highest-ranking executive in North America, was a shock to industry insiders.

But Mr. Press, 61, who started out at Ford in the 1960s and joined Toyota in 1970, faced ending his career essentially in an advisory role, said Jeffrey Liker, a professor of engineering at the University of Michigan and the author of “The Toyota Way,” which analyzed the company’s operating philosophy.

“He had the opportunity to revive a major American company, versus being a place holder at Toyota,” Mr. Liker said. “I can imagine the conversation with his wife: ‘Do I want to ease into retirement, or do I want to take on the challenge?’ ”

Chrysler can use his help. Toyota passed Chrysler last year to become the third-biggest auto company in the American market. Since then, Toyota has pushed past Ford to become No. 2, behind G.M., based largely on a lineup of cars and trucks that Mr. Press lobbied for his Japanese bosses to produce.

For Mr. Press, who will serve alongside Chrysler’s president, Thomas W. LaSorda, one priority will be working with Chrysler’s dealers. Many were enraged last year when Chrysler tried to force them to take on more vehicles, including gas-thirsty trucks and Jeeps, than they could sell.

A number of the dealers refused, and at one point more than 100,000 unsold vehicles sat on lots around Detroit and elsewhere.

That backlog is gone and so, too, are Chrysler’s German owners, who sold the company to Cerberus on Aug. 3. Mr. Nardelli was hired three days later, and now Mr. Press is on board, to some dealers’ relief.

“We’ve got great products,” said Brent Hiday, owner of Hiday Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Bluffton, Ind., south of Fort Wayne. “And I think he will get the message out and get things rolling.”

When he arrives at Chrysler on Sept. 17, Mr. Press will see a familiar face. Last month, the automaker hired Deborah Wahl Meyer, a vice president in Toyota’s Lexus luxury division, as its new chief marketing officer.

In fact, Ms. Meyer and Mr. Press are among four American Toyota executives who have left in the last year. Two longtime manufacturing executives, Dennis C. Cuneo, a senior vice president, and Gary L. Convis, who ran its North American operations as well as its plant in Georgetown, Ky., both retired, although they are serving as consultants.

Toyota officials in New York insist they have plenty of bench strength and do not fear a brain drain of Americans to Detroit companies.

Mr. Press was succeeded by a Japanese executive, Shigeru Hayakawa, even though Toyota has vowed to run its global operations with local managers.

“I wouldn’t say there’s any kind of premeditated process that Americans are being replaced by Japanese,” said Steve Sturm, a Toyota group vice president. “If anything, we defy traditional logic, and we’re not typecast.”

Mr. Press and Mr. Nardelli are the latest executives to bring management sparkle to Chrysler, which has long held a reputation as Detroit’s liveliest company. Indeed, Toyota and Chrysler have vastly different styles.

Toyota adheres to a set of principles known as the Toyota Way, which emphasize employee involvement and continuous improvement. The principles do not change no matter which executives are in charge.

Chrysler, by contrast, is more free-wheeling, and its direction generally depends on which strong-willed executive —Lee A. Iacocca, Robert J. Eaton or Dieter Zetsche are past examples — is in charge.

Jason Vines, vice president for corporate communications at Chrysler, would not disclose Mr. Press’s compensation, but said that he, like Mr. Nardelli, was being paid based on Chrysler’s performance. Private equity firms typically give executives a small salary plus a stake in the company. Their income can be tens of millions and even hundreds of millions of dollars a year, based on the firm’s profitability.

Mr. Vines added that Mr. Press was being encouraged to bring ideas from Toyota. “We’re going to borrow best practices from whomever,” Mr. Vines said. “We’re in this to win.”

Mr. Press, who was not available for interviews, said in a statement, “I relish this new opportunity with the Chrysler team to be a part of the resurgence of a true American icon here and around the world.” But he acknowledged, “This was the most difficult decision I have made.”

Indeed, Mr. Liker said, his success or failure at Chrysler will determine Mr. Press’s personal legacy. “It does sound very risky to me,” he said.

Whether Mr. Press can have an impact at Chrysler will depend on “whether they’re capable of thinking long term, whether they are capable of being customer-focused and whether they are capable of decision-making,” Mr. Liker said. “If they’re not capable, and he’s the only voice, he’ll get frustrated and leave.”

Nick Bunkley and Mary M. Chapman contributed reporting from Detroit.


豐田北美總經理被克萊斯勒挖角 衝擊大
【中央社╱中央社東京八日專電】

2007.09.09 03:54 am


針對日本豐田汽車公司北美分公司總經理普雷斯被美國汽車集團克萊斯勒挖角一事，日本多家媒體今天報導指出，這種美式作風已讓豐田遭受嚴重的衝擊，彷彿人才寶庫的豐田公司已成為被挖角的標的。

克萊斯勒前天晚間宣布，豐田北美分公司總經理普雷斯將出任克萊斯勒總裁兼副董事長，豐田也在當天宣布，普雷斯將於本月十四日離職。事實上，豐田得知普雷斯要辭職一事，大約是在一週前，但慰留不成。

「日本經濟新聞」報導，在歐美的汽車業界，挖角是家常便飯，但這是豐田首度遭遇高級主管被挖角，而且來挖角的就是有意攻佔汽車業龍頭寶座的克萊斯勒集團，對豐田的打擊不小。

普雷斯被視為「比日本人還了解日本和豐田」，屬於能以「豐田式語言」與豐田汽車首腦溝通的罕見人才，他在今年六月就任為豐田第一位非日籍的常務董事。據說他領的薪資比日籍董事還要優渥，甚至有人說他的薪資不遜於豐田的總經理渡邊捷昭，因此他的跳槽頗令人納悶。

報導說，普雷斯跳槽對豐田而言是遭遇雙重打擊。一是，豐田將失去普雷斯所擁有的經營手法及人脈，因為他經常與經銷商博感情，相當受歡迎，對於美國消費者的愛好、銷售動向等都能充分掌握，這些都是擴大市場佔有率的原動力；第二重打擊是，在全球化企業當中，普雷斯本身就是豐田的象徵性人物，豐田重用他，連帶提升了外籍員工的士氣。

報導指出，普雷斯的跳槽很可能導致豐田被迫需修正它在北美的企業戰略。普雷斯於一九七零年進入美國豐田，在加強銷售網方面嶄露頭角，去年五月就任為豐田的北美分公司總經理。由於他對豐田的經營手法瞭若指掌，今後他的存在對豐田而言，變成一個重大的威脅。

報導說，美國通用汽車公司等大公司都對快速成長的豐田的經營銷售手法頗感興趣，未來針對豐田的挖角的情形可能仍會持續進行。

此外，近年，豐田在美國的銷售台數約年增百分之十，常被指出很可能會再度引發美、日貿易摩擦。豐田高薪聘用普雷斯就是希望外界認為他所領導的公司是「美國企業」。但現在隨著他的跳槽，這張形象戰略牌的效力將大打折扣。