July 25, 2018 By The Editor
Ferrari, Chrysler’s CEO Sergio Marchionne dead in Switzerland
The shocking news about Sergio Marchionne started from Italy and became a world new throughout the whole planet.
Since last week, there could have been no doubts reading the solemn mood of the press releases and the words used in the official messages.
Words like “injustice, family, unconceivable, last days in a Switzerland clinic” clearly explained Sergio Marchionne’s conditions were serious and he was passing away. It seemed that even the high-end level of a Switzerland luxury health clinic is of any guarantee for millionaires survival.
Today, he died, leaving her partner and two sons.
He also leaves us plenty of examples of his personal culture of working ethics, practical, effective realization of ambitious projects in the international macroeconomics.
He always referred his job to be about one simple rule: “we must do what we must every day”.
An introverted and shy manager, willing to silently work, caring only for the practical results and never satisfied with the accomplished results.
Effectivness itself is never enough and Sergio always placed his “vision” skills and worldwide market phylosophy before his “practical” skills.
As he stated about his phylosophy degree “certainly not the least useful of the three in my work”.
His abstraction inclination always forerun all his many other skills.
He was fond of negotiation skills and skills on corporate finance and unprecedented financing achievements, but most of all he had vision.
He often cited the economist Joseph Shumpeter:
“the industrial change process, continually revolutionize the economic structure from inside, continually destroying the old economy creating a new one. This creative distruction process is in itself the essence of capitalism. This is capitalism and the companies working below its rules, must abide”
And as following the words of John Elkann:
“He taught us to think different and always have the courage to change, often in an unconventional way”.
A clear acknowledger of the different situations, his phylosophy approach overwhelmed every consideration he had, starting from the italian policy:
“he asked why, after all, nobody in Italy was doing what he had to do: entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurs; bankers, the bankers; labor unions, the labor unions; and so on. While anybody were trying to coexist with everybody, with the result of making any decision more difficult, often impossible.”
to the brand focus and inner value of the different market shares, he explained how:
“Ferrari has born and will die italian. If something would be produced outside, it would be obscene, totally unconceivable. If it would not be born here, it would not be Ferrary anymore.”
He had a mania in the necessity of sharing investments, as a must for all the car manufaturers, as he repeated over a few years.
His legacy is quite heavy.
He had a number of executive roles and the administration boards found themselves in an impossible task: the substitution of Sergio Marchionne.
It’s a singular fact that, it took 3 different persons with extraordinary curriculums:
- his pupill, author of the miraculous perfomances of the Jeep brand, which itself produce almost the 50% of all the FCA profits,
- an economist, author of the book “Reorg”, together with many economy articles and professor at the Tsinghua University in Bejing;
- another super-manager, who has a net value about 180 million euros, speakes four languages and was known for his relationship with Naomi Campbell.
All of the three must work together to do what Sergio was capable of managing alone.
There are no doubts regarding the fact that the attempt is actually that of “cloning” the job of Marchionne.
Nevertheless it has been clearly stated: guarantee “the maximum continuity possible for the firms” and “preserve the culture” Marchionne introduced.
The market cannot wait, the market never stops and the companies who want to survive cannot stop either.
It will not be easy to replace him.
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