Fiat, Chrysler, and the Power of a Dynasty
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ffirs.indd ii 05/11/11 2:05 PM Mondo Agnelli ffirs.indd i 05/11/11 2:05 PM ffirs.indd ii 05/11/11 2:05 PM Mondo Agnelli Fiat, Chrysler, and the Power of a Dynasty Jennifer Clark John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ffirs.indd iii 05/11/11 2:05 PM Copyright © 2012 by Jennifer Clark. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías) by Federico García Lorca copyright © Herederos de Federico García Lorca, from Obras Completas (Galaxia/Gutenberg, 1996 edition). English Translation by Galway Kinnell copyright © Galway Kinnell and Herederos de Federico García Lorca. All rights reserved. For information regarding rights and permissions of all of Lorca’s works in Spanish or in English, please contact [email protected] or William Peter Kosmas, Esq., 8 Franklin Square, London W14 9UU, England. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750 – 8400, fax (978) 646 – 8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748 – 6011, fax (201) 748 – 6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifi cally disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fi tness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profi t or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762–2974, outside the United States at (317) 572–3993 or fax (317) 572– 4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, visit our Web site at www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Clark, Jennifer, 1972– Mondo Agnelli: Fiat, Chrysler, and the power of a dynasty / Jennifer Clark.—1 p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978 –1–118 –01852–1 (cloth); ISBN 978 –1–118 –22196 –9 (ebk); ISBN 978 –1–118 –23611– 6 (ebk); ISBN 978 –1–118 –24120 –2 (ebk) 1. Fiat (Firm)—History. 2. Agnelli family. 3. Businessmen—Italy. 4. Automobile industry and trade—Italy. I. Title. HD9710.I84F477 2011 338.7'629222092245 —dc23 [B] 2011039738 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ffirs.indd iv 05/11/11 2:05 PM To Dino ffirs.indd v 05/11/11 2:05 PM ffirs.indd vi 05/11/11 2:05 PM Contents Agnelli Family Tree x Timeline xiii Prologue 1 Part I The Power of a Family 11 Chapter 1 The Scattered Pieces 13 Chapter 2 A Dynasty Is Born 31 Chapter 3 From Salad to Skinny-Dipping 55 Chapter 4 Gianni Agnelli, King of a Republic 73 Chapter 5 A Lament like a River 97 Chapter 6 Only One Person Rules at a Time 115 Chapter 7 The Wedding of the Year 127 Part II The Power of an Individual 137 Chapter 8 Unfi xable Fiat 139 Chapter 9 Running on Empty 161 Chapter 10 You Deal with It, and You Move On 181 vii ftoc.indd vii 05/11/11 2:06 PM viii contents Chapter 11 Sergio Marchionne’s Two-Billion-Dollar Bet 205 Chapter 12 A Completely Different Beast 215 Part III The Power of a Government 231 Chapter 13 Skin in the Game 233 Chapter 14 The Spirit of Ubuntu: I See You 263 Chapter 15 Sixteen Models in 14 Months 285 Epilogue 309 Notes 315 Acknowledgments 339 About the Author 345 Index 347 ftoc.indd viii 05/11/11 2:06 PM “The men who have changed the universe have never gotten there by working on leaders, but rather by moving the masses. Working on leaders is the method of intrigue and only leads to secondary results. Working on the masses, however, is the stroke of genius that changes the face of the world.” —Napoleon Bonaparte ftoc.indd ix 05/11/11 2:06 PM Agnelli Family Tree Giovanni Agnelli Clar (1866-1945) OO (186 Aniceta Agnelli (1889-1928) OO Carlo Nasi (1877-1935) Clara Nasi Laura Nasi Giovanni Nasi Umberta Nasi Emanuele Nasi (1913) (1914-1996) (1918-1995) (1922) (1928-1970) Clara Agnelli Giovanni Agnelli Susanna Agnelli (1920) (1921-2003) (1922) OO Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto (1927) Edoardo Agnelli Margherita Agnelli (1954-2000) (1955) OO Alain Elkann (1950) John Philip Jacob Elkann Lapo Elkann Ginevra Elkann Pietro de Pahlen (1976) (1977) (1980) (1986) OO OO Lavinia Borromeo Giovanni Gaetani (1977) dell'Aquila d'Aragona (1973) Leone Elkann Oceano Elkann Giacomo Gaetani (2006) (2007) (2009) flast.indd x 07/11/11 1:57 PM Clara Boselli (1869-1946) Edoardo Agnelli (1892-1935) OO Virginia Bourbon del Monte di San Faustino (1899-1945) Maria Sole Agnelli Cristiana Agnelli Giorgio Agnelli Umberto Agnelli (1925) (1927) (1929-1965) (1934-2004) OO Serge de Pahlen (1944) n Sofia de Pahlen Maria de Pahlen Anna de Pahlen Tatiana de Pahlen (1988) (1983) (1988) (1990) OO Georg Maevskiy Anastasia Maevskiy Serge de Pahlen (2006) (2009) flast.indd xi 07/11/11 1:57 PM flast.indd xii 07/11/11 1:57 PM Timeline July 30, 1863 Henry Ford is born in Dearborn, Michigan. August 13, 1866 Giovanni Agnelli is born in Villar Perosa, near Turin. April 2, 1875 Walter Percy Chrysler is born in Wamego, Kansas. August 5, 1882 Italian engineer Enrico Bernardi, working in Padua, Italy, obtains patent number 14,460 for an internal combustion engine for use “in small machines.” April–October 1884 Enrico Bernardi presents motorized three- wheeled car at Turin International Exposition. January 29, 1886 In Germany, Karl Benz patents a gasoline- powered engine, after having tested it on a three-wheeled vehicle. March 8, 1886 Gottlieb Daimler installs an internal com- bustion engine of his own design on a stagecoach. xiii flast.indd xiii 07/11/11 1:57 PM xiv timeline January 2, 1892 Edoardo Agnelli is born in Verona, Italy. May 18, 1895 First Italian car race is held, from Turin to Asti. July 1, 1899 Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, or FIAT, is founded in Turin. November 30, 1901 Henry Ford founds Henry Ford Company in Detroit. March 8, 1906 Agnelli becomes largest shareholder of Fiat. April 1906 Agnelli makes his fi rst trip to the United States. June 23, 1908 Agnelli and two partners are accused of market rigging in the 1906 market crash. August 12, 1908 Ford Motor Company makes its fi rst Model T. 1912 Agnelli visits Detroit again. July 5, 1913 Court of Appeals confi rms Agnelli’s acquittal in market rigging trial. June 8, 1919 Edoardo Agnelli marries Virginia Bourbon del Monte. September 1, 1920 Fiat workers occupy Fiat factories. March 12, 1921 Gianni Agnelli is born. October 28, 1922 Benito Mussolini’s March on Rome. March 1, 1923 Giovanni Agnelli is named a senator by Benito Mussolini. July 24, 1923 Edoardo Agnelli is named chairman of Juventus, the Agnelli family soccer team. October 25, 1923 Fiat’s Lingotto factory is inaugurated by Benito Mussolini. June 6, 1925 Chrysler Corporation is founded. July 27, 1927 Senatore Giovanni Agnelli creates family holding company IFI. flast.indd xiv 07/11/11 1:57 PM Timeline xv April 12, 1932 Fiat presents the Balilla, a successful small “people’s car,” at the Milan Fair. July 14, 1935 Edoardo Agnelli, 42, dies in airplane accident. December 19, 1936 Virginia Agnelli receives court order denying her custody of her seven children. May 15, 1939 Mirafi ori is inaugurated by visit of Benito Mussolini. June 10, 1940 Italy enters World War II on Axis side. July 25, 1943 Mussolini is ousted from power. September 8, 1943 Italy announces its surrender to Allied powers, which had occupied southern half of the country. May 10, 1944 Karl Wolff, Supreme Commander of Nazi SS forces in Italy, discusses German withdrawal with Pope Pius XII in meeting organized with help of Virginia Agnelli. November 26, 1944 Fiat manager Vittorio Valletta is denounced by workers’ committee as a traitor for collab- oration with Fascist government in report made to the CLN, the de facto government of occupied Italy. January 12, 1945 Benito Mussolini’s Republic of Salò includes Fiat on a list of companies to be nationalized. April 28, 1945 Turin is liberated by partisans; Valletta, Agnelli, and Camerana to be tried in “purge” of alleged Fascist-era collaborators. May 2, 1945 German forces in Italy surrender. November 30, 1945 Virginia Agnelli dies in a car accident.