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Dave uses his long experience with Chrysler, FCA/Stellantis, and other companies to take a serious look at the new buyouts and possibly dropping a brand or two...
#mopar #stellantis #stellpower #motales #chrysler #dodge #fca #business #layoffs #buyout
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0:01
hi everybody it's motel's Dave and I'm
0:03
here to talk about today's layoff
0:05
announcements uh apparently Automotive
0:07
news is reporting that Carlos Tavaris
0:11
forgive me if I'm not pronouncing the
0:12
name correctly has sent out buyout
0:15
notices to pretty much all the salaried
0:17
employees in North America it might just
0:20
be in the United States I'm not too
0:22
clear on that but it's about 16,000
0:24
people I believe and it's a buyout offer
0:27
for everybody from vice presidents on
0:30
down if you're salaried so not plant
0:32
workers but salaried employees really
0:35
it's one of those buyouts where it's
0:37
like we're looking for a specific number
0:40
and we don't really look at your
0:42
performance we don't look at your skills
0:45
we don't look at whether we can do
0:46
without you or not we just want to get
0:48
rid of a bunch of people quick and why
0:51
is this well some people are speculating
0:53
it's because of the recent uh cut in
0:56
profits from North America but I do have
0:58
to point out that stantis North America
1:00
made more money than any other stantis
1:03
region or Division I think that these
1:04
were planned before I think it's all
1:06
part of the way that he works he really
1:09
is slashing costs uh whether you say
1:12
that he's very wise in preparing for
1:14
recession that might never come or
1:16
whether it's part of his lowcost country
1:19
strategy where he tries to move jobs to
1:21
places like India and Brazil where wages
1:24
are cheaper I don't know I do know that
1:26
he's cut quite a bit from France and
1:29
Italy so that this isn't just a American
1:32
bad thing this is nothing to do with
1:35
Americans As Americans This is
1:38
everything to do with whether you run a
1:40
company on the cheap or not and I'm you
1:44
know I look at Chrysler over the decades
1:48
you know I'm I'm going back with a
1:51
perspective that goes back to 1904 on
1:53
this company and I've never really seen
1:56
wholesale Cuts helping well pretty much
1:59
any company I you used to read about it
2:01
in business week didn't
2:03
you these people like chainsaw Al Dunlop
2:06
we slash we slash we cut by 30% AT&T 30%
2:12
of our employees must go we don't care
2:13
who they are as long as they go uh I was
2:16
actually working at Pathmark
2:17
supermarkets at the time and we had a
2:19
promotion with AT&T telephones and it
2:22
was a lot of fun sending Messengers to
2:24
people's houses to get their signatures
2:26
on our purchase orders because they had
2:29
been laid off but their signatures were
2:31
still required for us to get phones AT&T
2:33
was not ready for the layoffs they
2:35
needed them I could argue one could
2:37
argue because they were very fat but you
2:39
know the way to do this is you go
2:41
through and you cut based on Performance
2:44
Based on skill based on whether people
2:46
are doing their job whether their job is
2:49
necessary this thing where you just hack
2:51
and slash to me makes very little sense
2:54
especially when you're still profitable
2:57
okay uh anyway so that's part one and we
3:01
go over this better in the St Power news
3:03
article which uh integrates mostly
3:06
Automotive news you know they broke this
3:08
story they break many stories Automotive
3:09
news is a great resource but you do have
3:12
to pay to get a subscription to
3:13
Automotive news but let's move on to the
3:16
other thing dropping Brands now this has
3:18
been going all over the Internet because
3:20
Tavaris said well we weren't planning to
3:23
drop Brands but we might have to drop
3:25
Brands earlier than expected so he was
3:27
going to give every brand 10 years when
3:30
the company was all put together and now
3:32
it looks as though the 10-year pledge
3:33
isn't going to really be 100% so who's
3:37
really at risk here now most people on
3:40
the internet are saying Chrysler and
3:42
Dodge because that gets the most clicks
3:45
and maybe it's true I mean you look at
3:47
Chrysler and uh you know I I do have a
3:51
lot of respect for Chrysler I'm an old
3:53
Chrysler guy but is the name a positive
3:57
or A negative I don't know
4:00
I don't have that kind of information
4:02
they only have minivans right now and
4:04
you know they could shift those back to
4:05
dodge but if you want to look at other
4:07
brands they could drop they could move
4:09
Ram back into Dodge too and then they've
4:12
lost one brand without losing really any
4:14
Brands because it would still be the
4:16
Dodge Ram and nobody would really mind
4:19
that I suspect so there's that there's
4:22
also DS that's the French uh sort of
4:25
luxury small car brand and are they
4:29
making money money are they successful I
4:31
don't know their volumes are low but
4:32
luxury car volumes usually are low uh so
4:36
they overlap with Alfa Romeo and
4:37
Maserati so the question is which one
4:40
would go now I've got my eye on Alfa
4:42
Romeo they've given Alfa Romeo a lot of
4:44
chances I think it's still
4:47
underperforming there's also lania
4:49
Lancia however you pronounce it they've
4:52
got a new car coming out but you know
4:54
they've kind of been in the dold drums
4:56
for years and we found out how good
4:58
their brand was when Chryslers were
5:00
rebranded into Lanas and nobody bought
5:03
them when they had been buying them when
5:06
they were sold as Chryslers so they're
5:08
kind of a negative equity brand possibly
5:11
outside of Italy so they might go
5:13
earlier than expected Alf Romeo uh I'd
5:17
be looking at them Maserati is usually
5:19
very profitable but lately they haven't
5:22
been but that might be because they've
5:23
got two new cars on on the road now but
5:27
there's also the thing of one of those
5:28
cars is an alpha Romeo uh that they
5:31
hastily made into a Maserati so who
5:34
knows uh the off Romeo tanali that's an
5:37
oddball that's a Jeep compass made into
5:39
an alfaromeo and the Jeep Compass was a
5:43
wider and longer version and I guess
5:46
taller version of the Alo Julietta so
5:49
it's all up for grabs who the hell knows
5:52
what's going on now uh this is the
5:55
latest news from stal power as read by
5:57
me Dave with my my opinions and maybe
6:00
coming off as a crazy old man shouting
6:03
into the wind but I will say that I have
6:06
looked at Chrysler you know and other
6:08
companies I mean my I have a PhD in
6:11
organizational psychology so studying
6:13
organizations is something I've done and
6:17
I've really looked a lot into Chrysler
6:19
history and they have rarely cut their
6:21
way to success they've sometimes had to
6:24
cut in order to
6:27
survive but when they rebound it's
6:29
because they've invested heavily in
6:31
something whether it's uh a brand new
6:34
car the original 1924 Chrysler that uh
6:38
is the reason why we don't buy Maxwells
6:40
anymore because that's what Chrysler
6:42
used to be used to be Maxwell Motors
6:44
that you can also go back to uh you know
6:47
after aokoka came in why did they bounce
6:49
back was it because aokoka sold off them
6:52
you know a whole bunch of stuff and
6:53
slash costs no it's because they had the
6:56
K cars coming out first the Omni and
6:59
Horizon which was a big investment
7:01
before ioka showed up and then the
7:04
Reliant and Aries and larian and all
7:07
those other cars it was investment that
7:09
did it and then when they made another
7:11
major Rebound in the 90s why did that
7:14
work because they had a major investment
7:17
not only in all these new
7:20
vehicles but in the Chrysler Technology
7:22
Center the CTC and what's happening to
7:25
that building well they apparently been
7:28
Outsourcing a lot of testing from uh
7:30
from the CTC and from Chelsea oh yeah
7:34
that makes a lot of sense pay somebody
7:36
else's profit margin and leave your own
7:38
state-of-the-art facilities to wither so
7:41
it it's an odd set of things that are
7:45
happening there might be a plan you know
7:48
we don't know what's really going on
7:50
from out here do we there is a lot going
7:52
on inside the Executive offices that we
7:55
don't have access to there are numbers
7:57
that we don't have there are plans that
7:59
we don't know so maybe this is all
8:01
absolutely brilliant and I'm a dingbat
8:04
for making any
8:06
criticisms but on the other hand maybe
8:08
this is all the kind of stuff that we
8:10
saw under Jack Welsh and Chainsaw Al
8:12
Dunlop and all those other people Bob
8:14
nardelli at Home Depot maybe this is one
8:17
of those things where the executives are
8:19
going off and doing nutty stupid things
8:23
and the ones out here in the wilderness
8:25
observing are actually right I'd
8:28
certainly like to know
8:30
and I'd certainly like to see some of
8:31
these concerns addressed and understand
8:33
what's going on without the meing mouth
8:35
double talk that we tend to get in the
8:38
letters to the employees and the letters
8:40
to the investors and so forth this is
8:44
day of signing out
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