What if: Could Stallkamp SCORE with Chrysler again?
 | Edward Lapham is the executive editor of Automotive News. He writes commentaries for Automotive News online every business day. His commentaries also can be found here. |
DaimlerChrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche said it last month at the Paris auto show. And Jason Vines, the automaker's top American PR guy, told me the same thing Wednesday night. Scout's honor.
But what if it were?
And what if it were bought by Ripplewood Partners LLC?
Yes, I know it can be dangerous and irresponsible to play what-if games. But this one is just too delicious to leave sitting on the plate.
Ripplewood seems to be everywhere these days.
This week there's growing speculation that the private-equity buyout firm might be interested in gobbling up Delphi Corp. when that ailing supplier emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Last month the partnership engineered a deal in which a Japanese supplier that Ripplewood owns -- Asahi Tec Corp. -- will acquire Metaldyne Corp. (Full disclosure: My wife is a vice president of Metaldyne, so ethically, I can't say anything else about that deal.)
But remember that Ripplewood partner Tom Stallkamp was president of the old Chrysler Corp. and a key member of the dream team that took Chrysler from rags to riches just before it was annexed by Daimler-Benz in 1998.
Not long after that deal was done, Stallkamp bailed.
While he was at Chrysler, Stallkamp created the Supplier Cost Reduction Effort, or SCORE, program, in which suppliers shared part of the cost savings they generated. SCORE helped Chrysler mine new technology and build a strong relationship with suppliers in the early 1990s, though Wolfgang Bernhard dismantled the program after he and Zetsche were dispatched to Auburn Hills six years ago.
So Stallkamp knows about suppliers and automakers.
OK. I know the Chrysler group isn't for sale. And I suspect that buying Chrysler isn't on Ripplewood's list of things to do.
Darn.
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