ATLANTA — Robert L. Nardelli — just "Bob” to those around him — had no retail background when he took The Home Depot’s top job, nor did he have auto industry experience when he became chief of Chrysler. But he liked challenges and, perhaps most of all, craved the chance to head a major American corporation.
He’s on his way out at the struggling maker of Jeep and Dodge vehicles, as Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday and prepared to join forces with Italian automaker Fiat. This time, however, Nardelli will likely make a quiet exit without the spoils that dogged his tenure at Home Depot.
"You have to almost — I stress almost — feel sorry for him,” said Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management. "I think he learned a great deal from past disappointments and put a lot of personal grandiosity and managerial macho well behind him on this assignment.”
He’s still a very wealthy man. Atlanta-based Home Depot gave him a severance package valued at $210 million after six years at the helm of the world’s largest home-improvement store chain. But after coming aboard Chrysler LLC in August 2007, the company made a point of feeding the media tidbits about his annual salary of $1, even though the privately held company had no obligation to talk about his pay.
While little is known about any performance-based compensation he has received at Chrysler, or might be entitled to after leaving the company, money doesn’t appear to be the motivating factor for why he took the job.
Sonnenfeld said he believes the Chrysler job was Nardelli’s "chance at image restoration.”
"His few favorable media supporters when he left office at Home Depot figured he’d go into private equity with riches,” Sonnenfeld said. "They were wrong. The only job that came along made him work harder than ever and paid him nothing.”
David Cole of the Center for Automotive Research said he wasn’t surprised Nardelli lasted less than two years at Chrysler.
"I think whoever was going to be in this position would be vulnerable given the collapse of the industry,” Cole said.
"You have to almost — I stress almost — feel sorry for him.”
Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld
Yale School of Management professor
by the associated press
He’s on his way out at the struggling maker of Jeep and Dodge vehicles, as Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday and prepared to join forces with Italian automaker Fiat. This time, however, Nardelli will likely make a quiet exit without the spoils that dogged his tenure at Home Depot.
"You have to almost — I stress almost — feel sorry for him,” said Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management. "I think he learned a great deal from past disappointments and put a lot of personal grandiosity and managerial macho well behind him on this assignment.”
He’s still a very wealthy man. Atlanta-based Home Depot gave him a severance package valued at $210 million after six years at the helm of the world’s largest home-improvement store chain. But after coming aboard Chrysler LLC in August 2007, the company made a point of feeding the media tidbits about his annual salary of $1, even though the privately held company had no obligation to talk about his pay.
While little is known about any performance-based compensation he has received at Chrysler, or might be entitled to after leaving the company, money doesn’t appear to be the motivating factor for why he took the job.
Sonnenfeld said he believes the Chrysler job was Nardelli’s "chance at image restoration.”
"His few favorable media supporters when he left office at Home Depot figured he’d go into private equity with riches,” Sonnenfeld said. "They were wrong. The only job that came along made him work harder than ever and paid him nothing.”
David Cole of the Center for Automotive Research said he wasn’t surprised Nardelli lasted less than two years at Chrysler.
"I think whoever was going to be in this position would be vulnerable given the collapse of the industry,” Cole said.
"You have to almost — I stress almost — feel sorry for him.”
Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld
Yale School of Management professor
by the associated press
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