Carmaking in France

Mover and shaker 风雨飘摇的法国汽车业

Apr 2nd 2009
From The Economist print edition

Christian Streiff makes another exit
Christian Streiff亦遭辞退。

IF GENERAL MOTORS’ Rick Wagoner was fired for not being confrontational enough, the other car boss to lose his job last weekend, Christian Streiff, was almost certainly ousted from PSA Peugeot Citroen for precisely the opposite reason.

如果说通用前CEO瓦格纳被解雇的原因是对抗危机能力不足，那么上周另一家汽车公司——标致雪铁龙公司（PSA Peugeot Citroen）——CEO Christian Streiff被炒几乎肯定就与此相反了。

Mr Streiff called the decision by the board of Europe’s second-biggest carmaker to get rid of him without warning “incomprehensible”. In some ways it was. During his two-and-a-bit years running the family-controlled firm, Mr Streiff cut costs, sped up development of new cars and improved quality. On his watch Citroen was restored from being a cheap and cheerful discount brand to something like its former glory.

Streiff先生表示，这家欧盟第二大汽车制造公司的董事会为摆脱他，在未给出任何警示的情况下就做出这样的决定真是令人难以置信。确实有点如此。PSA属于家族控制企业，在Streiff先生二年多的任期内，他的经营策略包括削减成本、加大新型汽车研发力度及提高产品质量。经过他的努力，雪铁龙摆脱了廉价的折扣品牌形象，恢复以往的光彩。

Even so, there were problems. Mr Streiff has a habit of trying to shake things up just a bit more than the boards he serves find tolerable. That bullishness led to his removal from Saint-Gobain in 2005, when on the verge of becoming the building-materials firm’s chief executive, and his abrupt departure from Airbus in 2006 after only 100 days at the controls.

即使如此，还是存在一些问题。Streiff有一个习惯：就是在某些重大事件调整时都多多少少会超过其雇主，即公司董事会，的容忍度。就是这样争强好胜的脾性导致了他于2005年离开圣戈班（彼时他即将成为这家建筑材料公司的执行官）及2006年在空客任职仅100天就在他人操控下突然离开。

At PSA, it looked at first as if Mr Streiff had learnt to be more diplomatic. But when some of his plans met internal opposition, he went ahead without checking that he had the support of the Peugeot family, which owns 45% of the voting stock. His authority may also have been weakened by health problems last year. Mr Streiff insists his health is now fine, but critics suggested he was no longer at the top of his game when the industry’s crisis required nothing less.

刚开始在PSA任职时，Streiff先生似乎学会了圆滑处事。但当他的几个计划遭遇内部反对时，他却在确认是否获得标致家族支持的情况下直接行事，标致家族拥有45%的表决权股份。他的职权亦因他去年的健康状况而遭削弱。Streiff先生坚称其身体目前很健康，但有评论家表示，当应对企业业危机要求十全十美的时候，Streiff先生就不会再拥有其首席执行官的职位。

Mr Streiff courted further controversy when, two days after negotiating a Euro 3 billion ($3.9 billion) loan from the French government in February, he announced 11,000 job losses on top of the 18,000 he had already culled. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s displeasure would not have gone unnoticed by Thierry Peugeot, PSA’s chairman. Mr Streiff will be succeeded by Philippe Varin, former chief executive of Corus, a steelmaker, and a notably smooth operator.

2月份在协议获得法国政府30亿欧元（39亿美元）贷款的两天后，Streiff先生宣布除了已裁的1.8万人，再裁员1.1万人，就再次引发了争论。PSA主席Thierry Peugeot不会注意不到总统萨克齐的不悦。钢铁企业Corus的前首席执行官Philippe Varin将接替Streiff先生，而他处事尤为圆滑。

译者/nita:    http://www.ecocn.org/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=18547&extra=page%3D1