Chrysler Helps Itself to Toyota Sales Star

In a surprise hire, Chrysler lures Jim Press, the Japanese juggernaut's sales and marketing guru, to a top job

Rick Wagoner, Jim Press, and Alan Mulally at a House Energy & Commerce Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Mar. 14, 2007 Getty Images/Mark Wilson

by David Welch

In what can be viewed as the biggest coup in the auto industry since General Motors (GM) hired car guy Robert Lutz out of retirement in 2001, new Chrysler Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Nardelli has snatched sales and marketing guru Jim Press from rival Toyota Motor (TM).

Chrysler announced the surprise move on Sept. 6, making it Nardelli's second hire from Toyota in a month. Press will be Chrysler's vice-chairman and president, sharing those titles with Tom LaSorda, the manufacturing boss who was the automaker's CEO until Nardelli joined on Aug. 6.

It's clear that Nardelli is wasting no time building a top management team by stealing talent from the industry juggernaut. Before luring the highly respected Press, he had already poached Deborah Wahl Meyer, who was vice-president for marketing at Toyota's Lexus Div. Meyer is now vice-president and chief marketing officer at Chrysler.

Catch a Rising Star

"It's a great catch," says Joseph Phillippi, principal of AutoTrends, a New Jersey auto consulting firm. "Why not go for the best? It also shows Nardelli knows what he doesn't know." Nardelli's plan is to place Press on equal footing with LaSorda to keep top management in complete control of the "supply and demand" of Chrysler's cars, company spokesman Jason Vines says.

With Press, Nardelli gets one of the best sales and marketing executives in the car business. Press was at the helm of Toyota's North American sales group for much of the company's meteoric rise. Toyota's U.S. market share has risen from 10% to 16% since 2000, and the company is on pace to surpass Ford (F) as the second-biggest seller in the market this year.

With Press in key positions, Lexus also became the best-selling luxury brand in the U.S. Meanwhile, Toyota launched its quirky Scion brand, a successful move that has helped the automaker tap into a younger market. After a long run in top sales jobs, Press was promoted last year to president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor North America, the holding company that oversees Toyota's U.S. sales and manufacturing operations.

A Hands-On Position

Why would Press want to leave surging Toyota for struggling Chrysler? One Toyota insider who asked not to be named says that while Press did receive a big promotion, his job as head of the holding group exiled him from daily operations.

Press, a competitive swimmer at 61, is known for his high energy and constant need to be challenged. The Toyota source says the executive simply wanted to get back into the day-to-day game of sales, marketing, and product planning. The promotion put Press in a figurehead role where he was the public face of the company, but planning new models and selling cars was left to the executives he trained.

Also, as a private company, Chrysler owner Cerberus Capital Management can offer top talent like Press big equity stakes that could make them very wealthy later on if Chrysler is sold or goes public. Despite Chrysler's troubles, the automaker may be able to use equity as an enticing lure for other big-name executives. Chrysler did not release Press' compensation package.

For Toyota's part, the company loses a top talent in the U.S. And with the second departure in a month, it's clear that even Detroit's struggling carmakers can steal talent from mighty Toyota. But in the near term, the company should be able to absorb the blow. James Lentz, Toyota's group vice-president for sales and marketing, has been running that group since Press' promotion last year. He and other Toyota marketers learned from Press.

"Toyota Really Listens"

Chrysler can learn a lot from Press, too. Dealers say Toyota's U.S. executives do a better job than anyone in the business when it comes to getting customer feedback from their dealers. That's one key to how Toyota stays in touch with the U.S. market.

At a meeting in New York in July—at which Toyota briefed dealers on the company's EM2 program, a management initiative designed to stamp out the complacency of "big-company disease"—Press stopped and asked Blauvelt (N.Y.) dealer Neale Kuperman, "What can we do better?" Kuperman says. "Most other companies don't want to hear from you."

Dealers insist that Press' queries weren't just hollow pleasantries. Often dealer input was followed up with a visit from Toyota engineers in Japan to find out what customers want with their cars. "Toyota really listens," Kuperman says. "If Press can bring that to Chrysler, he'll help them a lot."

Welch is BusinessWeek's Detroit bureau chief.