Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Chrysler, LLC.
Two more out the door: Meyer and Murtagh leave Chrysler
A little over a year ago, Chrysler was poaching and hiring folks with big brains to be a part of its executive turnaround team. Now a few of those hires, along with the old guard, are walking out the front door. Deborah Meyer came over from Toyota, where she had been VP of marketing for Lexus, and she took over the chief marketing officer spot at the Chrysler, LLC. At the time we wrote, "She must have been aware of the situation when she accepted the offer, however, so perhaps she sees hope in Chrysler's new beginning." Apparently, hope ran out, and Meyer has vacated her post effective immediately. Phil Murtaugh ran General Motors' gangbuster operations in China, left the company, and then was picked up by Chrysler a few months later. He fulfilled the same role at Chrysler, yet with the Chery/Dodge Hornet as the most public example, he couldn't engineer the same success. He has called "Time!" at Chrysler, and leaves at the end of this month. Meyer and Murtaugh's departures this month follow those of Chrysler's global purchasing head and its global service and parts head. Thanks for the tip, Derek!
[Source: Auto News, Sub Req.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jrejre 4:15PM (12/27/2008)
Did they give 2 weeks notice?
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BigWill 6:47PM (12/27/2008)
Probably, since this story is close to 10 days old.
andy 4:19PM (12/27/2008)
I'm surprised they stuck around this long
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Mike 4:21PM (12/27/2008)
The rats are usually the first to leave a sinking ship. The real question is did they get a silent payoff to leave because let's face it no automaker is hiring with bonuses let alone doing any major hiring.
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Polly Prissy Pants 7:42PM (12/27/2008)
These days execs either get the big payoff before even taking the job or a huge golden parachute when they leave. Either way they end up rolling in dough so whether the company sinks or swims really makes no difference to them. It's just another j-o-b.
LX builder 5:28PM (12/27/2008)
Old news now.
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Jung 5:54PM (12/27/2008)
Great cars like Lexus sell themselves. Being a marketing chief at Lexus is not exactly a proved reputation.
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oneviwatara 6:34PM (12/27/2008)
I think Lexus have the last laugh. lol!
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old guy 7:04PM (12/27/2008)
Oh but the consummate politician, Frank Klegon (the Klingon), remains to drive them further down
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AZMike 7:32PM (12/27/2008)
these are not great losses; I compare them to real estate agents.
when times are good, all agents need to do is write contracts; they are essentially order-takers. no marketing needed whatsover.
however, when times get tough, the order-takers disappear, and the real salespeople step forward.
I'm sure Ms. Meyer had an easy job selling Lexus models; the automotive equivalent of shooting (or shoosting, as Lisa Douglas on Green Acres would say) fish in a barrel. again, not much tough decision-making necessary. take a Toyota, slap an "L" on it, and out it goes.
I was fortunate to have purchased a Dodge dealer back in 1982, when everyone was predicting Chrysler's immediate demise. (sound familiar?) ...and spare me all the, oh that was different; besides the tight credit market then (as now), we had to deal with the prime interest rate at 16%! the average person with an "A" credit rating was paying between 17%-18% for a car loan; mortgage rates were the same. what's the prime rate today, 1%?
I used to laugh when we got a new Zone Rep. they (of course) all had MBAs: like that qualified them for anything, besides having huge student loan obligations to pay. as far as common sense (or the simplest of marketing skills) went, they had none. is, of course, never stopped them from trying to always tell you what you were doing wrong, or trying to shove some unsaleable vehicles into your inventory.
I remember once the rep was trying to get me to take more Omnis, about 40 in all. the Omni was a great car; you couldn't kill one. they were easy sales in Iowa and Nebraska, but not in Southern California, where I was. I made the rep a deal: if he (personally) could sell one that day at my dealership, I take all 40. it was pathetic to watch this guy try to sell, and he had an MBA in Sales and Marketing.
by the way, he never tried to shove another anything down my throat again. I think he was afraid I would say something to one of his higher-ups about his sales skills. I never did.
buh-bye to those of thin marketing skills; your MBA could be used for emergency TP if you should run out. now, please step aside for some real American ingenuity to take over.
AZMike
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Polly Prissy Pants 7:51PM (12/27/2008)
"I think he was afraid I would say something to one of his higher-ups about his sales skills."
I'm with you 100% as most fresh college grads, mbas included, don't know their backside from a hole in the ground. The problem is that's the currency of today's corporate ecosystem so if you did complain you'd just be complaining to another mba and guess which side he or she would take?? I've interviewed plenty of these types in my life and I honestly wonder what's actually be taught in American business schools these days.
Judy Zik 8:12PM (12/27/2008)
Polly actually hits something really square on the head.
The biggest problems with the corporate world is that legitimate complaints from staff and customers are ignored. Front line staff are taught how to placate and apologize to customers but discouraged from actually passing along genuine customer feedback. When it is passed along nothing comes from it. Corporations spend a fortune on paid focus groups and messed up surveys but when an actual customer calls all they get are scripted apologies and the run around. Assembly plant workers are given more and more tasks to do in less time and then told to focus on quality. They get in trouble if they complain that they can't keep up or a job isn't getting done right or heaven forbid they stop the line. Too many big shots trying to squeeze another dollar out of the operation to justify their own existence.
If the North American automakers listened to their customers, dealers and assembly line workers their products would be more competitive.
AZMIke 9:02PM (12/27/2008)
Lee Iacocca's Chrysler wasn't really like that, thankfully.
Lee dissolved all the BS chain of command, and things got to management very quickly. Lee was the best guy in the car business, ever.
Lee's commercials, for all their amatuerishness in the begnning, really hit a nerve with people in the early 80's. they seriously awakened a real sense of patriotism in people. I can't tell you how many folks of all ages would just walk into the showroom and say, "I'm buying one of your cars today because I want to help Lee". no BS, no arguing, you just had them pick a car, and wrote it up. they'd send in family and friends, too, when they saw what really good cars they were. I'd say 30 sales per month were the result of Lee's heartfelt commercials. I'd love to see that again today.
my dealership was near Burbank Airport, and I can't tell you how many times Lee would stop in thru the course of a year. he's usually wander thru looking for me, and many times I'd be back washing cars with the detail guys if we had a busy day. my normal work dress was a pair of shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. it made Lee laugh his ass off, as I never felt there was a single job in the dealership that was below me, and he understood that. all of my great employees help take the dealership from 10 cars per month to over 100. not bad for a place built in 1946, and room for two small cars in the showroom. the place looked like it belonged in rural Iowa, not metropolitan Southern California. today, almost all dealerships have a corporate chain of command, and I doubt most dealer prinicpals even know where the detail department is, let alone who works in it. go back and help the detail guys? please, that's below them...and there lies the problem.
Lee loved to talk to customers, and always stopped in the service department to check with the mechanics about any service issues. he really cared.
I think one of the days I will remember most was picking up the first Dodge Caravan sold in California in March of 1984. Chrysler's railhead for Southern California was in Santa Fe Springs, halfway between Los Angeles and Orange County, about 25 miles from my dealership. I had one of the guys take me down and drop me off. I was picking up a loaded, garnet red crystal coat/black two tone Caravan LE, and it was already sold to a customer. I pulled out of the lot, and headed for the 605 freeway north, headed for I-5. then the strangest thing happened.
cars would start to pass, and then they would just stare and wave. they slowed down, and got behind me. by the time I got back to the dealership, there were thirty cars back there!! when I pulled into the driveway, there were over 200 people (including Lee) just standing there cheering! I couldn't help it, I just burst into tears. I'm getting misty-eyed right now just thinking about that moment. of course, Car and Driver tested an early one, and pronounced the minivan a "fad" that would last about two years. thank god for our "experts"!
as you can tell, this was a very special time in my life, and I look back on it with much fondness. the sad part is that cars today are much better than back then, and there is no one (perhaps with the exception of Bob Lutz) that has the fire, passion, and salesmanship of Lee Iacocca. we need that now.
AZMIke
Stratojet 10:04PM (12/27/2008)
Best post I have read for a long time. I work for GM in Canada and I see this all the time. The new trend is MBA now.
The funniest thing is that they are supposed to be high potential, every one of them. So real road warrior have to train them until they know what they are doing. I have to say that some of them are quite bright and will succeed. But the majority will just go from short assignments to short assignments. Then they will land a big job where decisions could impact the corporation in a big way. This is why many US (and even Japanese) companies are not doing so well: incompetence.
I told my boss this little story one day:
Let's say you own your little bicycle company and you need to hire a sales rep because it's growing too fast, what would you look for? He said:
1- Knowledge of the biking industry
2- Interest in the sport itself
3- Technical knowledge of the product
4- True love and enthousiasm for the activity
He asked me why I was asking this question.
I said: we hire MBA's with absolutly no passion, knowledge or experience in the automotive world. Don't you think an automobile is far more complex than a bicycle SIr?
By the way we still hire graduates but I succeeded in recruiting experienced employees.
In conclusion, Lehman Brother was the sixth best wished job for MBA's grasduating in finance! The rest of the story is known.....
Mark 11:50AM (1/02/2009)
Great Comments AZMike. See my post as a former (now retired) rep.
Brn 8:33AM (12/29/2008)
Where are they going? It's an important piece of information to have before we jump to conclusions.
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Mark 10:21PM (1/01/2009)
Lots of good posts here especially from the dealers. First of all, I just took an early retirement from Chrysler (Technical Advisor) time to bail when I could just like Meyer. However, I was NEVER EVER impressed with her. Her 1st efforts with advertising left me and my dealers with "I don't get it". She was useless in my opinion.. so no big loss. Second, I completely agree with the MBA statements and the lack of passion from the reps. I have "one of those pieces of papers" but never thought that meant anything other than I accomplished something I wanted (Masters degree). However, I got my Masters 11 years after I got my undergraduate degree AND when I was working full time. It had more real world meaning. Now... when I 1st got to Chrysler with "that piece of paper put away and forgotten" I told every one of my dealers that "I don't know sh*t about this industry and I'm asking you to teach me". I knew my education was going to come from my dealers and not the corporation. I had the philosophy that "if the dealers succeed we succeed". I was always a dealer advocate ahead of everything else. Yes I had to push BS programs and try to slam cars down the throat (when I did Sales for awhile) but I NEVER shipped a vehicle or a parts without permission. Something I saw happen all the time. All of the new DM's that I mentored and taught were emphasized that NEVER EVER BS a dealer and don't be afraid to say I don't know but I'll find out. The ones who thought that because they work for Chrysler meant they were the "boss" or had all of the answers didn't last very long. I never did that and never would. I have to tell you, I left with a great deal of respect and admiration from all the dealers I worked with. They were more than my dealers they were my friends. So many said that I was the only rep they could count on getting a problem resolved even it was not in my job description.
Now, we had 5200 really good people either retire or take voluntary termination. The talent that was lost is irreplaceable. The dealers are NOT a consideration in this reduction. There was not the slightest concern about the dealers and taking care of them other than they were a means to an end by pushing cars and programs to get revenue. I talk to the reps that are left after the Dec 1 2008 exodus and they are miserable. I talk to my old friends (Dealers) and they say no one is available to help or even know what to do TO help. I see upper management making BONEHEAD moves that show that they are unable to change. Unfortunately most of the senior managers are cut from the same cloth that "the harder you whip the harder they will work". Losing folks like Deb Myers is a blessing because they just don't have the passion.
Okay..I'm done rambling but I have a passion for this industry and I have a passion for the dealers. I just wish the upper management had it as well.
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AZMike 1:00PM (1/02/2009)
Mark,
a fantastic post!! I was fortunate enough to have several reps just like you, and we got along great. if there is something I don't know, I'm the first one to say it, and I greatly admire that quality in another person as well. I went from owning a detail business to being a dealer prinicpal. I was fortunate enough to have surrounded myself with the best possible talent, and I learned everything from them. I took the dealership (with their mentorship) from selling 10 cars a month to over 100 in two years.
it gets pretty frustrating here to have to deal with all the uniformed idiots who don't have the slightest understanding of the car business. I always have to laugh when they glowingly speak of their beloved Japanese cars; if they only knew what hell and politics their dealers go thru, they wouldn't look at their American counterpasrt with such disdain. the dealers that sell Japanese cars here in the US have far more hoops to jump thru than their domestic counterparts. you mentioned never sending something that wasn't requested; if you worked for Toyota, Nissan, or Honda, you'd be out on the street.
my first experience with the vindictiveness of Japanese manufacturers occured to a Toyota dealer in Valencia, California, in 1985. Toyota wanted some immediate upgrades to the facility here, and the dealer at the time couldn't afford it.
Toyota immediately begin to retaliate. inventory poured in, but all of it was awful. at one point, they had over 400 model 8200 pickups. these were the absolute cheapest trucks available, with bias ply tires, single wall beds, and no radios, no power steering, no air conditioning. most dealers sold these as "Saturday morning loss leaders". there weren't enough Saturdays in a year to move all of these. this dealer also had the largest stock of diesel Camrys and Corollas in the nation, although not a single one was requested from Toyota. the owner soon sold the dealership. this type of thing still goes on today, and is even worse now.
I always have to laugh at all the negative comments concerning Chrysler's dubious "sales bank". critics constantly trash it, but in all their ignorance fail to realize that this is how imports (and transplants) manufacture automobiles.
the import/transplant factory starts building vehicles; there is absolutely NO input from dealers. they fill the storage lots. now, the zone reps get on the phone, and TELL the dealers what they will be receiving. about the only say so the dealer MIGHT have is how many, red, whites, or blues they will be receiving. of course, if the dealer isn't on good terms with the rep, or has refused to take all of their allocation, see two paragraphs above. of course, this method is "efficient", and the conventional method of ordering your own inventory for your own unique market area is "archaic and inefficent". uh-huh.
the errant import dealers will now be receiving a few hundred package #5 Prius ($30K MSRP), or perhaps 100 regular cab Tundras with the small V-8, $995 TRD dual exhaust system, carpeted floor mats with rubber floors underneath, an auto dimming mirror, and stainless door sill plates. sun belt states will receive 4WDs; snow belt states, 2WD. and stop laughing; I saw 50 of the trucks I described at a dealer here in the Phoenix area. as fitting for our desert climate, they were all black. I'm sure the 2WD white ones went to a "bad" dealer Minnesota.
there is no question that the fate of any manufacturer lies with the dealers, and their ability to sell what the factory produces. it never ceases to amaze me how this very simple and important point escapes so many of the "expert" posters here.
I had a lot of faith in Jim Press, as he was held in very high regard with dealers for his fairness and ability to listen when he was still with Toyota.
perhaps Chrysler can move Nardelli out of the way, and get Jim into the trenches. I'm still hoping for Lee Iacocca's appointment as "car czar".
again, thanks for your post. it's always great to know there are a few other folks out there who have been in the business, and "get it".
AZMike
Chris 4:57PM (3/09/2009)
Mark & AZmike:
I've always Dreamed about starting my own car company, and I would have loved to have you 2 helping. You both seem to embrace a concept of the Automotive world that seems long-departed from, and definitely could be used right about now. Shame it's such a terrible climate for the industry, otherwise sharing such tidbits of history would have prompted me to start working on a business plan. All I got right now is a paper napkin of sorts for a company, and Another for putting a road circuit on the Grounds formerly held by the Original Jeep Plant.
Thank you again for the tales of what's wrong and what could make us great again.
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