CNBC Business | Sergio Marchionne

Sergio Marchionne

Simon Hobbs interviews Sergio Marchionne of Fiat and European Business Leader of the Year at the European Business Leaders Awards

SH: Unusually, instead of centralising the business, you delegated out responsibilities.

SM: Look, we have 185,000 people and any one of those people can cause me enough damage in a five-minute period to change all my productions until 2010. So, unless you learn how to effectively run this organisation through a very flat structure where I can interface with a group of senior leaders who manage their own structures on the way down in the same way, you’ll never have control.

SH: So what’s your latest thinking on this structure?

SM: I used to be incredibly maniacal about the levels of hierarchy between me and the shop floor and this was probably based on a lack of experience. I’ve learned that the biggest risk is when people started relegating authority back up the levels into my office – that is lethal.

SH: And how did you manage to change Fiat to deliver better operationally?

SM: I found some great people who could do that and I asked them some very pushy, stupid questions like, “Why can’t we do that faster?” Now we can make a car in 18 months, instead of three years. And without the agony.

SH: What are you like to work for?

SM: I always tell my guys that the real quality of a leader is the quality of the people he leaves behind. And so the only thing I really care about is leaving behind a really strong organisation – one that will survive me, certainly.

SH: How often do you get to drive your Ferrari back home to see your wife and kids?

SM: About once a month. It’s harsh, but Fiat is a very large place with a lot of unfinished business and we need to get to it quickly. But I enjoy leading a simple life, having normal dinners with truck drivers in pizzerias. It restores some level of sanity to the process and it really demystifies the role. One of the big risks of being a CEO is that you start believing your own press.

SH: You’ve said that you believe there is a need to remain little – what does that mean?

SM: I’ve always had the view that being a leader is one of the greatest privileges that you can have, but it is not a right. You need to earn that right to lead every day. Being a CEO of a company the size of Fiat, you can and do impact significantly on people’s lives. The way you surround yourself outside of the day-to-day work environment moderates the extremes associated with the role. You need to balance the unreality of the role with attachment to very simple things – almost a Franciscan way of life.

Sergio Marchionne and other winners at this years European Buisiness Leaders Awards (EBLA) are currently being profiled in The Leaders series. This weekly show, hosted by award-winning presenter Simon Hobbs, features interviews with leaders from the worlds of business, politics and beyond. Filmed on location, The Leaders reveals what drives Europe’s top business and political talent.