Date of the interview: March, 26 2013

Professional Profile: Pietro Gorlier was born in Turin (Italy), he joined the Fiat Group in 1989 as a market analyst in Iveco helding various positions in logistics, in the After Sales and Customer Care, before joining Fiat Group Automobiles in 2006.
After the experience in FGA and in CNH Global N.V., he joined Chrysler Group. He is President and CEO of MOPAR® since 2009 and , from its establishment on Sep. 1, 2011, he is member of the Group Executive Council (GEC). The GEC is the highest executive decision-making body within the Company outside of its Board of Directors.

In the next years we will see a close fight on everything concerning care, attention and customization of the car; this competitive scenario will generate significant margins, much more than the ‘metal’ alone.
In this perspective, it is strategic the position that Mopar® is taking on within Fiat Group Automobiles and Chrysler Group’s activities. Read more »

2012 has been succesfull for carmakers: they all made money selling cars! Read more »

…the first part!

GLOBALISATION!  This term should allow you to achieve a product that is in line with the tastes of the “entire world”, with the underlying principle of listening to your customers. Are Lancia and Chrysler getting to grips with this term? Do they listen to the large mass of customers who are trying to convey their expectations? If not, what’s missing and what will you do to address this issue? Read more »

Interview Date: January 4, 2013

Professional Profile: Paolo Gagliardo, after an MBA at Columbia Business School in New York, has built great part of its career in the Automotive industry. He has worked in Ford Motor Company and FIAT in various Marketing, Sales and Product assignments in the UK, US and Italy. He has also worked in the Italian Railroad Company, as Chief Marketing Officer and Piaggio S.p.A. as Executive Vice President Product.
In 2010 he has rejoined Fiat Group Automobiles as COO for International Operations and now he is Head of Brand Lancia/Chrysler for EMEA.

The products in the Lancia range – the Thema and Flavia in particular – seem to be carbon copies of non-European models; to this, add the decision to abandon the Lancia brand. Today, can a Lancia salesperson be successful in proposing this type of product, taking on the European competition? Read more »

Third and final part of the interview with Mike Robinson, Brand Manager and Chief Designer by Bertone. The first part will find it here as this is the second.

Recently you also assumed the responsibility of the transportation design department? Do you think this area can improve, change substantially in the near future? What are the your suggestions? Read more »

Here there is the first part of the interview with Mike Robinson, Brand Manager and Chief Designer in Bertone.

You always create futuristic designs and as a source of inspiration you have the historical Bertone masterpieces. How do you think the design world will evolve in the next 10 years?  Will the car remain the same object that we know today? Read more »

Date of interview: March 3, 2012

Professional Profile: Mike Robinson

Notes: Interview by Artemisa Bega

While thinking about the automotive world in general, and more specifically about the car design world, including communication and the fascinating star system in the industry, I remembered a very special, unique personality that I had the pleasure of interviewing, which produced an unusual and powerful point of view.
The big guy in question is Mike Robinson: a six foot five “Italianized” American designer, today Brand Manager and Design Director at Bertone.

Read more »

While in Italy manufacturers, importers and dealers are losing dozens of employees and millions of euro every day – and Fiat develops his worst results in the last 30 years – in Russia the Carmakers seems to play war games.

The Russian market is a great opportunity for manufacturers and dealers: last year, 2,652,000 cars were sold with a growth of 39.1% over 2010. As reported by Focus 2 move, the first quarter of 2012 ended with another growth of 22.7%, despite statements of analysts praising the CIVETS and giving BRICS markets for finished! Read more »

Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" © by papalars

In 2008 the global financial crisis hit European Economy reducing real purchase power and effecting commodities sectors, including the automotive. Markets started to decline and the European Governments decided to support automotive, considering the high impact over GDP. Read more »

 Interview Date: March, 14th 2012.

Professional Profile: Marco Saltalamacchia

Remarks: Interview carried by  Pietro Montagna

I have asked Mr. Marco SALTALAMACCHIA (former Senior Vice President of BMW Sales & CEO of BMW Italy SpA) some thoughts about the future of our sector.
Good Morning Mr. Saltalamacchia, the current crisis of the European Automotive Market triggered a huge brainstorming of ideas and possible solutions. From your experience do you think it would be feasible to think about a distribution without dealers? Do you foresee a direct web selling, or either un-experimented channels? Read more »