Power Steering

How Chrysler's Italian boss drives an American auto revival

Greg Ruffing for TIME

Sergio Marchionn at Chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich.

Ask any of the 11,000 people bustling around the Auburn Hills, Mich., headquarters of Chrysler Group why the automaker the U.S. government thought couldn't possibly survive now can't possibly fail, and the answer is "Because we have Sergio."

Cross the Atlantic to Torino, Italy, and ask a similar question about the future of Fiat, Chrysler's majority owner, and you get this: "Because we have Marchionne."

The difference is purely cultural--Americans use first names to refer to colleagues; Italians prefer last names. But they are talking about the same guy: Sergio Marchionne, the Man Who Saved the Car Business.

The boss of...

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