Marchionne jealous of Ferrari's past glories says Montezemolo

Frankly, this seems surreal to me. I can't see how these guys, whatever they might have been doing, can be held for responsible of Alitalia's bankrupcy, which almost everyone in Europe has seen coming, for the past ten years at least, just like a trainwreck in waiting. The real culprits are first and foremost the unions and their inflexibility; to think that even Air France, which knows one thing or two in the matter of unions, has given up is to say something...
Most people I know love to fly Alitalia, and I do; but that company has been destroying itself for too long...so, accusing the last CEOs is "a bit short", shall we say...
Rgds.

 

As you probably know, scapegoats are needed in case of corporate failure; that's the way business works.

 

True; even the level of their salary, usually high, takes this "accountability" into account.
But if there ever has been a foreseeable catastrophy that everyone has been seing coming for a very long time, it is the failure of Alitalia.
Air France, which knows a thing or two about unions and about high operating costs and "mixed results", has offered twice to buy enough shares of Alitalia to take control of it, and has been rejected twice for "offer not acceptable"...
Rgds

 

I don't know anything about it, but maybe Air France's offer was judged insulting perhaps.
It's not unusual when a business is near the end, to receive offers that don't reflect its value.
The owners prefer to let the company hit the wall, and then buy the bankruptcy for peanuts, as they intended all along.
The ailing business keeps on trading, under a new name, with more or less the same owners, and the same management., whilst its creditors are been desisted by a court order.
The phoenix reborn of its ashes ? No doubt, there will be an enquiry for this.
Is it not the way Swissair became AirSwiss?

 

No, the first Air France offer was actually considered "fair" by the profession, but the unions didn't accept it. I think it was 2005 or about (it would be easy to check) so still the "old Alitalia", before the first disguised bankrupcy of 2007; the two companies know each other very well, they have been partners in "SkyTeam", code-sharing, etc...which isn't surprising as the exchanges of passengers, goods, etc...between the two countries are dense; Air France/KLM held 25% of the shares of the "New Alitalia" in 2009, with an option to purchase additional shares after 2013. Then the company went from bad to worse, including a period of renationalisation, if my memory serves me well, under Berlusconi. Air France made a second offer in 2014, almost ten years after the first one, and that's when Alitalia decided to go with Etihad instead.

Rgds

 

You would have to be a fly on the wall during some of the meetings to understand some of the decisions sometimes..
Unless you are not privy to the discussions, you can only feed from what transpires in the media.
When companies like Alitalia fail people feel surprised.
My answer to that is that if you want winners in business, you have to expect losers too.
Cynical, I know, but close to the truth.

So, Luca de Montezemolo could be implicated in that debacle. It's tough at the top if you ask me.

 

While the jury is still out on SM, I suspect Ferrari history will view LDM far more highly...
He presided over a true road car renaissance, with the Scuderia reaching it's highest of highs...all done a great sense of style, panache and effete charisma. A direct link to Enzo, he had a true appreciation of the Ferrari ethos and it's racing history. SM is just alot of dreery bluster in a stuffed sweater by comparison. I don't think he bleeds rosso corsa by any means, and will likely be most famous/infamous for turbo-charging and hybridizing the road range.

 

Lmao. What a hypocrite

 

Absolutely. I miss Luca....

 

LdM totally screwed up the Maserati opportunity, to increase volume (with Maserati) and keep exclusity for Ferrari. LdM once claimed Ferrari would never increase production beyond 4000 cars per year, and it was under his tenure that it reached 7000 cars / year.... His comments about SM may be accurate but they just look like reflecting bitter frustration.

 

IIRC Maser was taken from Ferrari after LdM and Ferrari fixed it.

 

Fixed? sales of Maserati staid lower than Ferrari sales, although the Maserati range was supposed to compete with more mass produced brands like Porsche or Mercedes. FIAT took over because Ferrari failed with Maserati.

 

You forgot that Ferrari actually won F1 championships under LdM and so far has not under Sweater.

 

Maserati is alive and is a player in the upscale car market. That is because of Montezemolo's vision. Under Marchionne, quality has slid and the cars are being overproduced. A lot of Ferrari dealers would now like to ditch the franchise, as LFSC did.

 

I don't think it's exaggerated to consider Luca de Montezemolo as Enzo Ferrari spiritual son.
He brought a lot of success with the Scuderia, and later, he probably saved Ferrari as a car company.