Jim Press sees great opportunities for Chrysler

Posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 1:34 PM EDT.

Audio link

Chrysler LLC Vice Chairman and President, Jim Press, was a guest on Detroit radio station WJR Thursday morning. Press told host Paul W. Smith he came to Chrysler after 37 years at Toyota to work with a great team in Bob Nardelli and Tom LaSorda, because he sees great opportunities for the company. To hear more of the Jim Press interview on WJR, click on the link.

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Jim Press
Chrysler LLC Vice Chairman and President
It’s great to be on this team. The timing is perfect. The organization is capable. They’ve got everything situated. They need some good, fresh direction, and some consistent thoughts and observations, and I can bring those. This group, the Cerberus Group, they’re for real. Mr. Feinberg, when he contacted me, he said he wants to build back a great American icon.

Paul W. Smith
Host—WJR Radio, Detroit
You feel comfortable in making that switch after 37 years?

Press
You know I do. The people here, and the culture, is gold-plated. And it’s as good as it could be in any company. I think that what I can do is maybe help coach them into a little more focus from the customers’ point of view, and approaching business from a long-term perspective. That’s where Cerberus is, and Bob Nardelli and everybody really wants to make that happen. I think the days of the strong leader being the head may be over because we’re empowering the organization. They’re the ones—everybody here—they have the ownership. We’re here because of the 85,000 people and the four generations of workers. This is an investment in not just a company, but the industry for America.

Smith
Your job, specifically, will be to work with the dealerships?

Press
I guess the best way to say it is that Tom is Mr. Supply, and I’m Mr. Demand. Our organization is sales and marketing, and service and parts, and product development. What we see is we can capitalize on a growing market. The market here is going to grow, and we’re going to increase our share. And I think the domestic auto industry will increase their shares. They’re the key. They Chrysler dealers are the strongest dealers. They’ve been through the ups and downs. They know the business. And they are going to be our strength. They’re going to drive us. The customers drive them. Our dealers will drive us. We’ll listen to them, and we’ll make this thing work.

Smith
Listen Mr. Supply, is Mr. Demand, Tom LaSorda, going to stick around past the UAW talks?

Press
Oh, of course. Absolutely. This is a great team. He says it well. He says we checked our egos at the door. If there was one conversation that made this an easy decision for me, it was when I talked to Tom. He says, “Look, I’ve got four generations in this company.” He’s here to stay. Bob (Nardelli) is an absolute business expert.

Smith
He’s thought to be very, very tough.

Press
He is. It’s a great discipline—process—and those are the things we need to build a strong foundation to keep growing and be successful in the future.

Smith
You never had to do this at Toyota. Do you think, Jim Press, you’re going to have to continue with the plan of reducing the number of dealerships, the number of showrooms, etc., for Chrysler?

Press
There’s no question that there’s been shifts in the market, and we haven’t made responses necessary to keep our retail organization profitable and growing and prosperous. So we need to take a look at that. And the other thing we need to do is grow the business. Part of the solution is to get the size right, and part of the solution is to grow into your shoes. There’s a lot of opportunity we have to expand our market share.

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