RIP Sergio Marchionne
Discussion
Sheetmaself said:
Seems strange as apparently it was shoulder surgery but they were already talking about him as though he may not come back at the last GP?
Either way there’s more important things than speculation so all the best to his family and hopefully all were fairly well prepared for the loss.
I don’t know how true it is, but I read he was riddled with cancer from having been a heavy smoker for years and years and this ultimately caused his demise.Either way there’s more important things than speculation so all the best to his family and hopefully all were fairly well prepared for the loss.
Edited by The Moose on Wednesday 25th July 12:19
Sheetmaself said:
Seems strange as apparently it was shoulder surgery but they were already talking about him as though he may not come back at the last GP?
Either way there’s more important things than speculation so all the best to his family and hopefully all were fairly well prepared for the loss.
Any surgery carries with it the risk of complications resulting from it and it seems that he was very unlucky - a real shock. RIP.Either way there’s more important things than speculation so all the best to his family and hopefully all were fairly well prepared for the loss.
Lucas Ayde said:
Any surgery carries with it the risk of complications resulting from it and it seems that he was very unlucky - a real shock. RIP.
I get that, it just seems like everyone at the last GP was expecting not to see him again. I’m not suggesting they thought he would pass but it just seemed more than what was being told. Sheetmaself said:
I get that, it just seems like everyone at the last GP was expecting not to see him again. I’m not suggesting they thought he would pass but it just seemed more than what was being told.
They had already announced at the last GP that he was standing down with immediate effect due to poor health so they knew he wouldn't be back.
Sheetmaself said:
Seems strange as apparently it was shoulder surgery but they were already talking about him as though he may not come back at the last GP?
Either way there’s more important things than speculation so all the best to his family and hopefully all were fairly well prepared for the loss.
Not really. A lecturer at my college went in for a stomach operation, suffered a massive heart attack on the operating table and died instantly. Either way there’s more important things than speculation so all the best to his family and hopefully all were fairly well prepared for the loss.
Like motorsport, surgery always carries risks.
https://www.motorsportweek.com/joesaward/id/00276 suggests an embolism causing brain damage
sgtBerbatov said:
Sheetmaself said:
Seems strange as apparently it was shoulder surgery but they were already talking about him as though he may not come back at the last GP?
Either way there’s more important things than speculation so all the best to his family and hopefully all were fairly well prepared for the loss.
Not really. A lecturer at my college went in for a stomach operation, suffered a massive heart attack on the operating table and died instantly. Either way there’s more important things than speculation so all the best to his family and hopefully all were fairly well prepared for the loss.
Like motorsport, surgery always carries risks.
As corporate leaders go, Marchionne was a titan.
Very, very few Wall St analysts publically credit performance of chief execs, like the Morgan Stanley guy did, when he said, “you literally made $2b into $72; we ain’t seeing the likes of you again!”
For me he’s the template for what the next round of industry leaders need to aim for. Across the West, we’ve got way too many underperforming guys/gals who end up in plum seats but just aren’t any good. By and large they all get undone. But I imagine at Davos and Bildberberg and all those places, other top guys knew in their mind, wandering around shaking hands, that he was one of the best.
It was literally the smartest thing the Agnelli family ever did aside from start the firm and hired him. Patriarch took the only seriously business minded member of the junior clan to one side (Elkann, Jon not Lapo) and said “...you’re 28, you’ll be the leader of the family interests. But we as a family need to get the best professional out there to just save the firm first otherwise we are dead before you get the chance.”
Saving something takes skill.
Stabilising something a blend of other skills.
Knowing you’re at the point to grow and go bigger, another set.
Performing a monster M&A, integrating the thing and coming out bigger? Not many do that.
He had the full set, did it across industries, was phenomenally good company (heard that from reliable sources), did the detail and could out strategise everyone else. It was an interesting point that for a long time in FCAs annual report, it was always highlighted that his health was a key factor cited as integral to the continued high performance of the company.
Not interested in speculating on what took him - no one truthfully knows, and find it unedifying that people think it’s “a topic”. But the genuinely sad factor is that he worked voraciously, did it his way, had built a professional legacy, but just as the days to a deserved (semi) retirement beckoned with family, he didn’t make the finishing line. That’s tough.
If anyone thinks he’s worthy of deeper interest and reading, go to the likes of the FT and business publications. F1 journos don’t have the deeper knowledge.
Very, very few Wall St analysts publically credit performance of chief execs, like the Morgan Stanley guy did, when he said, “you literally made $2b into $72; we ain’t seeing the likes of you again!”
For me he’s the template for what the next round of industry leaders need to aim for. Across the West, we’ve got way too many underperforming guys/gals who end up in plum seats but just aren’t any good. By and large they all get undone. But I imagine at Davos and Bildberberg and all those places, other top guys knew in their mind, wandering around shaking hands, that he was one of the best.
It was literally the smartest thing the Agnelli family ever did aside from start the firm and hired him. Patriarch took the only seriously business minded member of the junior clan to one side (Elkann, Jon not Lapo) and said “...you’re 28, you’ll be the leader of the family interests. But we as a family need to get the best professional out there to just save the firm first otherwise we are dead before you get the chance.”
Saving something takes skill.
Stabilising something a blend of other skills.
Knowing you’re at the point to grow and go bigger, another set.
Performing a monster M&A, integrating the thing and coming out bigger? Not many do that.
He had the full set, did it across industries, was phenomenally good company (heard that from reliable sources), did the detail and could out strategise everyone else. It was an interesting point that for a long time in FCAs annual report, it was always highlighted that his health was a key factor cited as integral to the continued high performance of the company.
Not interested in speculating on what took him - no one truthfully knows, and find it unedifying that people think it’s “a topic”. But the genuinely sad factor is that he worked voraciously, did it his way, had built a professional legacy, but just as the days to a deserved (semi) retirement beckoned with family, he didn’t make the finishing line. That’s tough.
If anyone thinks he’s worthy of deeper interest and reading, go to the likes of the FT and business publications. F1 journos don’t have the deeper knowledge.
tigerkoi said:
As corporate leaders go, Marchionne was a titan.
<snip>
If anyone thinks he’s worthy of deeper interest and reading, go to the likes of the FT and business publications. F1 journos don’t have the deeper knowledge.
<snip>
If anyone thinks he’s worthy of deeper interest and reading, go to the likes of the FT and business publications. F1 journos don’t have the deeper knowledge.
I started the thread in the NP&E section with the same news, As I said there my worry is that FCA will go into free-fall without him. He was the antithesis of a notionally successful Italian public figure and probably the better for it.
r11co said:
I started the thread in the NP&E section with the same news, As I said there my worry is that FCA will go into free-fall without him. He was the antithesis of a notionally successful Italian public figure and probably the better for it.
- generally I don’t post much but if I’m going to the effort I try to contribute as if really worth my time, as most months I’m off grid What you say about FCA is a really valid opinion. Things could unravel because he was a remarkable glue and dynamo. I think I blew off on another F1 thread (Williams related maybe) about the whole 9% generational thing - widows, idiot sons, entitled offspring partying in Martha’s Vineyard constantly...you know, family fortunes squandered over time. But the analysts will watch closely to see if John Elkann, after 15 years of being schooled at the knee of Marchionne that he might have enough to keep the thing ticking at least. Or at least know to appoint the right people if things get hairy. Neither he nor Lapo seem to have had the whole expensive Swiss/French school thing with a Yale business school education cherried on top, but whilst Lapo was up to nothing, old Agnelli really felt under the right guy he might be moulded well enough to keep the whole thing alive.
Exor only controls 30% of FCA, but it tells a story. FCA hopefully should be cash positive now, or soon. Exor’s gross debt is being eaten into, and at the time of the graph it was announced that average maturity of debt was 5yrs. All this could only be underpinned by a clear plan that Marchionne developed years ago, and market will therefore expect to be kept to. Sure, there are some big calls coming up, but unless some other forces and market pressures start to really imperil, then most would expect Elkann to stay in flow. But will be a very, very interesting watch.
Edited by tigerkoi on Wednesday 25th July 19:00
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