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From the blogs at Chrysler LLC, new President Jim Press speaks out. Check out his comments on diesel, it made my day!:
Jim Press is a Vice-Chairman and President at Chrysler
"A lot of people have asked me why I decided to leave Toyota after 37 years. I had a great career at Toyota, a good run. Yet when Chrysler offered me an opportunity to help create an environment where the U.S. auto industry can flex its muscle globally, I knew it was time to move on. I’d been looking for a new challenge. So here I am.
I’ve always had great respect for Chrysler. Its products have great bones, integrity, a lot of appeal and great design. They’re fun, emotional and people love to drive them. That’s what this industry is all about.
I was also strongly attracted by Chrysler’s people. I have a saying that the strongest steel comes from the hottest fire. Given the challenges that have been thrown at this company in the past, our associates have survived many fires and have forged a great strength of character.
Chrysler’s dealer body is the best anywhere. For a sales guy like me, that’s a big draw. If I were ever going to get in a barroom brawl, I'd pick Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealers to get behind me in that fight. They're strong, they know how to survive and they know what the company needs for success.
I don't have any playbook or secret codes on how to run a car company. There's no silver bullet here. The market is challenging and our competitors are growing. However, I’m incredibly optimistic for Chrysler’s future. We have a new owner in Cerberus, who has empowered us to do things right. We have fewer constraints than other companies do. We can be nimble, fast and flexible. No other company has our unstoppable dealer body. No other company has our associates. No other company has our heritage. No other company has our fun and appealing products.
Chrysler is poised for success. We have a great leadership position in diesel, which is one of the greatest weapons we can use to fight CO2 … more effective, in my opinion, than hybrid systems. Hybrids do have some advantages, especially in city driving, and Chrysler has a number of hybrid vehicles ready to pop out of the product pipeline. We also have some exciting concept cars coming up that show many applications in advanced technologies. By the way, that’s another benefit Chrysler has with Cerberus; we’ve been given the opportunity to earmark a ton of money for development of advanced products.
My philosophy is simple: We all work for the customer. Our job is to satisfy customers and exceed their expectations with great products and provide a high level of service. To me, that starts by giving our dealers the tools they need to serve customers and empowering our associates to make the decisions needed to support the customer.
I've learned over the years that the talent in any organization doesn't only reside wherever the executive floor might be. In fact, my experience has been that the executive group has only about 10 percent of the information and yet makes about 90 percent of the decisions. That’s not right. We need to reverse that. There are 85,000 people at Chrysler, plus the people in our dealerships, who know what needs to be done. My job is to create an environment where they are allowed to do whatever they need to do to take care of the customer. When we unleash the capability and power of our associates and our dealer body, nothing will stop this company."
From the blogs at Chrysler LLC, new President Jim Press speaks out. Check out his comments on diesel, it made my day!:
Jim Press is a Vice-Chairman and President at Chrysler
"A lot of people have asked me why I decided to leave Toyota after 37 years. I had a great career at Toyota, a good run. Yet when Chrysler offered me an opportunity to help create an environment where the U.S. auto industry can flex its muscle globally, I knew it was time to move on. I’d been looking for a new challenge. So here I am.
I’ve always had great respect for Chrysler. Its products have great bones, integrity, a lot of appeal and great design. They’re fun, emotional and people love to drive them. That’s what this industry is all about.
I was also strongly attracted by Chrysler’s people. I have a saying that the strongest steel comes from the hottest fire. Given the challenges that have been thrown at this company in the past, our associates have survived many fires and have forged a great strength of character.
Chrysler’s dealer body is the best anywhere. For a sales guy like me, that’s a big draw. If I were ever going to get in a barroom brawl, I'd pick Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealers to get behind me in that fight. They're strong, they know how to survive and they know what the company needs for success.
I don't have any playbook or secret codes on how to run a car company. There's no silver bullet here. The market is challenging and our competitors are growing. However, I’m incredibly optimistic for Chrysler’s future. We have a new owner in Cerberus, who has empowered us to do things right. We have fewer constraints than other companies do. We can be nimble, fast and flexible. No other company has our unstoppable dealer body. No other company has our associates. No other company has our heritage. No other company has our fun and appealing products.
Chrysler is poised for success. We have a great leadership position in diesel, which is one of the greatest weapons we can use to fight CO2 … more effective, in my opinion, than hybrid systems. Hybrids do have some advantages, especially in city driving, and Chrysler has a number of hybrid vehicles ready to pop out of the product pipeline. We also have some exciting concept cars coming up that show many applications in advanced technologies. By the way, that’s another benefit Chrysler has with Cerberus; we’ve been given the opportunity to earmark a ton of money for development of advanced products.
My philosophy is simple: We all work for the customer. Our job is to satisfy customers and exceed their expectations with great products and provide a high level of service. To me, that starts by giving our dealers the tools they need to serve customers and empowering our associates to make the decisions needed to support the customer.
I've learned over the years that the talent in any organization doesn't only reside wherever the executive floor might be. In fact, my experience has been that the executive group has only about 10 percent of the information and yet makes about 90 percent of the decisions. That’s not right. We need to reverse that. There are 85,000 people at Chrysler, plus the people in our dealerships, who know what needs to be done. My job is to create an environment where they are allowed to do whatever they need to do to take care of the customer. When we unleash the capability and power of our associates and our dealer body, nothing will stop this company."
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