Bob Nardelli: King of Failure Gets a New Throne

You can't keep a good failed executive down. Bob Nardelli established himself as the poster boy for rewarding failure after he walked away from Home Depot (HD) with $210 million for a job poorly done.

Within a few months, he was running Chrysler, where even government handouts couldn't keep him from driving the automaker into bankruptcy.

Now, the King of Failure has landed a position with Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity firm that hired him to run Chrysler. In his new gig, Nardelli will oversee companies in Cerberus' portfolio. No telling how many of those he'll run into the ground before Cerberus rewards him with another fat severance.

Fail. Get a big payoff. Get a new job. Fail again. Repeat. The Nardelli Principle is alive and well.

Disclosure: no positions

Comments

[a. palmer jr.:]

Chrysler's problems started long before Bob Nardelli. I don't think they've done well---well, ever. Back when I was a kid people only bought Chrysler products when they couldn't afford GM. Ford people were a different matter, they were loyal to the brand, and still are.
Nardelli, in this case was like some of our Presidents, just around at the wrong time. But to borrow a phrase, too many coincidences can't be a coincident!

Jul 22 10:31 AM

[casey00001:]

The only reason Bob Nardelli ever looked good was because Jack Welch was his boss. Been downhill ever since for both him and Jeffrey Immelt (now GE CEO). Funny thing is everybody praised Jack Welch for his management skills but so far everybody trained under him hasn't done dick.

Jul 22 02:07 PM

[BigOlDave:]

Loren, I agree.

Jul 24 02:58 PM