Chrysler pulls off coup by hiring Toyota's top man

During his years at Toyota, Jim Press was known for his swimming prowess - a skill that could come in handy as he navigates the choppy waters in his new job at Chrysler.

Chrysler hired Press to run its sales and marketing operation on Thursday, luring him away from Toyota Motor Corp, where he had headed North American operations for more than a year.

The move was seen as a major coup for Chrysler, which has been restructuring its top management since it was acquired earlier this year by a private equity company. The automaker has been struggling to compete against Toyota and other Asian rivals, and snaring one of the Japanese company's top executives could bring a new dimension to Chrysler's corporate thinking.

In fact, Press is the second Toyota defector to join Chrysler. Last month, it hired a top marketing executive from the other company's Lexus luxury division - a division Press ran back in the 1990s.

Challenges

The 60-year-old Press will face two immediate challenges: Managing the launch of crucial new vehicles such as the Chrysler Town & Country minivan and Dodge Avenger sedan, and repairing the company's frayed relations with its dealers.

Both tasks should play to his strengths.

As the key figure at Toyota's Torrance, California-based US sales division from 1999 to 2005, Press served as the automaker's eyes and ears in this country and was credited with having a keen understanding of what appealed to US drivers.

"He's smart enough to know how to bring to market what the customer wants," said Jim Hall, an analyst with Tustin, California-based consulting company AutoPacific Inc. "And knowing the secret of how to put the customer No 1 is how Toyota went from being an importer with their headquarters Hollywood Boulevard to what may be the smartest car company on the planet."

Press helped lead Toyota's successful drive to the top of the global market for gasoline-electric hybrids and also managed the successful launch of the youth-focused Scion brand.

And he made Toyota a player in the US minivan market by shepherding the Sienna to the No 2 spot in the segment.

Press also displayed a talent for working with car dealers, which will be "incredibly important at Chrysler because Chrysler has bungled its relations with its dealers," said Michelle Krebs, editor of Edmunds' AutoObserver. com. The effect of Press's departure from Toyota is harder to predict.

Achievements

During his years in Torrance and later at North American headquarters in New York, Press oversaw the growth of the automaker's US market share from under 10 per cent to its current 16.2 per cent. Toyota is poised to overtake Ford Motor as the No 2 car company in America.

Having an American in its top job in the US was seen by some as a way for Toyota to defuse criticism that it was pushing domestic companies to the wall. Toyota and other Japanese automakers were prime targets of protectionist sentiment during the 1980s, when they first made serious inroads in the US.

Earlier this year, when Press was named as the first - and so far only - American on Toyota's board of directors, it was noted that a former Toyota president, Hiroshi Okuda, had been warning of a possible backlash as Ford, Chrysler and General Motors once again were on the ropes.

Press had pushed Toyota to expand its US manufacturing facilities, and the company now operates 14 plants in North America, with a 15th under construction in Mississippi.

Toyota named Shigeru Hayakawa, executive vice president of its North American division, to replace Press, whose resignation is effective from September 14.

The change at the top "doesn't mean a thing to the consumer," Krebs said. "I'll bet they didn't even know" that an American was running Toyota's US operations.

"Jim Lentz and the crew in California are running the sales operations and that's what really matters," she added, referring to the executive who succeeded Press in Torrance last year.

Press, a Los Angeles native who went to college in Kansas, joined Toyota in 1970 after a stint at Ford. Described as personable but highly competitive, he's an accomplished swimmer and licensed private pilot.

After buying a majority stake in Chrysler, Cerberus Capital Management named former Home Depot Chief Executive Bob Nardelli to the top job. Press will share the titles of vice chairman and president with Chrysler's former CEO Tom LaSorda, who will continue to run the company's manufacturing and purchasing operations.

Appointment: Carmaker names new Asia head

Chrysler announced another high-profile management appointment yesterday after it persuaded Phil Murtaugh, the former head of General Motors' successful China business, to run its Asian operations.

For the past year Murtaugh has been an executive vice-president at Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corporation (SAIC), one of China's largest and most ambitious carmakers. His departure will be a blow to the international expansion plans of the Chinese group, which two years ago bought some of the assets of the UK's Rover group and has since launched its first own-brand car in the Chinese market.

Murtaugh said the Chrysler job was "an offer I just cannot turn down". Before joining SAIC, Murtaugh was chairman of GM's China operations for five years and played a central role in building up the business from nearly scratch to the second-largest brand in the Chinese market.

- Financial Times