Longitudinal Latitude?

“On a recent fall day the two new bosses at Chrysler traveled to the company's test track in Chelsea, Mich., an hour's drive west of Detroit. The two -- Chief Executive Robert Nardelli and Vice Chairman James Press -- were to spend the entire day poring over every vehicle in Chrysler's lineup. It wasn't pretty. There was the cheap-looking plastic on the dash of the Dodge Caliber. A poorly placed cruise control switch on the Chrysler 300. Windows that rolled down herky-jerky on the Jeep Grand Cherokee. But what was remarkable about this visit was that by the end of the day Nardelli had ordered more than 200 engineering changes to fix the array of problems and make improvements, at a cost of at least $100 million. The armrests and door grips would feel softer. Electronic windows would get one-touch switches. And yes, that cruise control button would be relocated. No lengthy meetings. No black-bound briefing books. Just get it done…

“As a private company Chrysler has the latitude to make long-term decisions that would have been difficult, if not impossible, to justify in a world where shareholders punish companies for missing earnings projections by a penny per share …

“At Chrysler, Nardelli started immediately poking his nose everywhere. He drives a different car to and from work each day, and meets one of Chrysler's chief engineers in the company garage each morning ‘to go over a few items.’ He asks piercing questions that put employees on the defensive, often challenging the status quo. Why, for example, he wants to know, aren't we improving the air-conditioning systems in all our vehicles, rather than chasing complaints on one model? His probing style grates on some. ‘You start to wonder, Is anything okay with this guy?' said one senior manager. ‘This is a guy who could find a better way to create the earth.’

“‘With me, it's either a quick yes, or a quick no -- never a slow maybe,’ Nardelli says.”

(“Chrysler's Last Stand.” Joann Muller. Forbes: November 26, 2007. Vol. 180, Iss. 11; p. 168)

DO YOU WONDER how the market will answer -- with a quick yes, a quick no, or a slow maybe... ? At Home Depot Nardelli got a pronounced "No thank you" from his supposed "troops."

SO ON THE ONE HAND the market is demanding real action now, while on the other the culture of Chrysler is in the hands of long-term managers and workers.