Chrysler's Top Brass Assured Employees that Cerberus is 100% Committed

Chrysler's CEO LaSorda in a forum has assured 400 employees that Cerberus is 100 percent committed. Similarly, top executives of Chrysler has also launched major internal communications to help in informing the still jittery employees of what the sale of the company to Cerberus Capital have in store for them.

The stressful months of uncertainty about the future of Chrysler manufacturer of high quality Dodge step bar has ended last week when Daimler/Chrysler has finally announced that it has chosen Cerberus as the new owner of its money losing arm. But despite the proclamation there are still lots of questions an unanswered and most of them are from the employees.

Last Monday, Chrysler CEO LaSorda hosted a town hall-style meeting with some 400 employees, updating them on the plan of the company in the coming weeks. His message was--- "Cerberus is 100 percent committed to Chrysler and employees need to buckle down on the turnaround plan."

To illustrate just how information hungry were the employees, it took 14 minutes for the 400 employees to sign up online for CEO LaSorda's meeting. Some of the toughest questions thrown at Chrysler's CEO dwell on the issue why executives were recently awarded bonuses.

The management of Chrysler will schedule more forums for the next three weeks to answer all the questions of the employees and at the same time to inform them on the various changes that will take happen in the company.

There was one salaried employee that described the atmosphere this week as "pretty much business as usual here but everybody wants to know what is going to happen."

Both CEO LaSorda and Chief Operating Officer Ridenour are stressing in their messages the point that Chrysler employees can determine their future by executing the so-called Recovery and Transformation Plan that was started last February 14.

In a note written by Ridenour last Tuesday, employees were given a comprehensive update on the "Plan" that includes job cuts, factory closures, and a push into global markets. He also stated in the note that the strategy will require a "built-in discipline that has been lacking before."

The plan will be comprised of 29 sub-teams working in seven key areas that will cover product strategy to capital management to quality and material cost management. There will be deadlines and targets that are to be set while team projections are tracked.